INTRODuCTION
7Capturing new evidence
Nutrition research is continuously evolving and studies are published regularly. Relevant results from high quality
studies (primarily systematic reviews) assessing food, diet and health relationships that were published after
the literature review for the Evidence Report (i.e. after 2009) were also considered in the development of the
Guidelines. While results from these studies were not graded, and did not influence the evidence statements,
they were included in the Guidelines and were deemed warranted to ensure currency.
As the Evidence Report only included studies investigating food, diet and health relationships, the results of
other high quality studies published since 2002 were used to update the sections in the Guidelines that provide
other information (‘Setting the scene’, ‘How eating a particular food may improve health outcomes’, and ‘Practical
considerations’ sections) if they met the following criteria:
• the study was a high quality randomised controlled trial, intervention, cohort, or observational study, but not an
editorial or opinion piece (meta-analyses were considered)
• the outcome of the study related to some aspect of health or chronic disease
• the study results were generalisable to the Australian population
• the study was related to foods or the total diet rather than nutrients.
While they did not influence the evidence statements or grades, these sources were used to assist in refining
translation of the evidence.
How the evidence was used
Getting the Guideline wording right
The final wording of each Guideline was developed by the Working Committee through a consensus approach,
based on the information gained from the five key sources discussed above. Each Guideline is considered to be
equally important in terms of public health outcomes.
For example, to translate all available evidence regarding consumption of vegetables and health outcomes into a
guideline recommendation the following evidence was considered:
• the graded evidence statements (from Grade A through to C) about the relationship between consumption of
vegetables and various health outcomes^33
• the importance of vegetables as a source of key nutrients in the Australian diet from the Food Modelling
System^9 and the NRV Document^8
• the relatively low energy content of vegetables8,
• findings of international authoritative reports including the World Cancer Research Fund report (WCRF Report)
(see Appendix F)^43
• information provided in the 2003 edition of the dietary guidelines.^36
Assessment of all available sources of evidence confirmed the importance of consuming vegetables for promoting
health and wellbeing. The Working Committee translated this evidence into the guideline recommendation to ‘eat
plenty of vegetables’.
Using evidence statements
The graded evidence statements from the Evidence Report are included in the section titled ‘Evidence’ under
each guideline recommendation. These sections also include relevant ungraded referenced evidence from the
other four key evidence sources to ensure comprehensiveness and currency. The Evidence sections provide the
basis of the scientific information that was translated to form the guideline recommendation at the beginning of
each chapter.
To ensure the Guidelines are realistic, practical and achievable, the scientific and social context for each guideline
recommendation was considered, along with potential mechanisms through which particular dietary patterns
may influence health, to help assess the plausibility of the associations described in the Evidence sections.
This information originated predominantly from the previous dietary guidelines series, updated by narrative
reviews of additional literature sourced from authoritative reports, from the Food Modelling System,^9 the NRV
Document^8 and high quality studies published since the 2003 edition of the dietary guidelines.