EAT FOR HEALTH Australian Dietary Guidelines

APPENDICES

109

B Process report

In 2003, the NHMRC issued the Dietary Guidelines for Australian Adults and Dietary Guidelines for Children and

Adolescents in Australia, having already issued Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians in 1999. With a policy of

reviewing guidelines every 5 years, the NHMRC in collaboration with the Healthy living Branch of the Department

of Health and Ageing (DoHA) commenced a review of the suite of Dietary Guidelines in 2008. The above three

reports have now been combined into a single document.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines (the Guidelines) provide a resource that promotes the benefits of healthy eating

to improve community health and wellbeing and to reduce the risk of diet-related disease. The Guidelines are

intended for healthy members of the general population of any age, including people with common diet-related

risk factors such as being overweight. They are not intended for people with medical conditions who require

specialised dietary advice, or for frail elderly people who are at risk of malnutrition. The target audience of the

Guidelines includes health professionals (including dietitians, nutritionists, GPs and nurses/lactation consultants),

educators, government policy makers, the food industry and other interested parties. Other resources are being

developed from the Guidelines for other target audiences.

B1 Contributors

The Guidelines were developed utilising a collaborative approach, combining the content expertise of the Dietary

Guidelines Working Committee with the assistance of expert methodologists. The NHMRC managed the process

and representatives from DoHA participated as observers throughout the process. DoHA provided a significant

proportion of the funding for developing these Guidelines.

Dietary Guidelines Working Committee

An expert working committee (the Working Committee), chaired by Dr Amanda lee and deputy-chaired by

Professor Colin Binns, was appointed in April 2008 to guide and advise the redevelopment of the Australian

Dietary Guidelines. Representatives from DoHA attended working committee meetings as observers.

The Working Committee developed the guidelines in accordance with NHMRC procedures and in keeping with the

following terms of reference established by the NHMRC.

Table B1: Terms of reference of the Dietary Guidelines Working Committee

The Dietary Guidelines Working Committee (the Working Committee) will oversee and provide expertise on

the revision of The Core Food Groups (1994), the Dietary Guidelines for Older Australians (1999), the Dietary

Guidelines for Children and Adolescents incorporating the Infant Feeding Guidelines for Health Workers (2003),

the Dietary Guidelines for Australian Adults (2003). This will include:

1. Input to the development and conduct of necessary literature reviews


2. Advice on development of a consultation strategy


3. Input to the development of appropriate documents including guidelines which will take into account:
   • the best available scientific evidence
   • comments provided by the broader community through public consultation
   • the needs of health service providers
   • any other relevant matter.