EAT FOR HEALTH Australian Dietary Guidelines

EAT FOR HEALTH – AusTRALiAn diETARy guidELinEs

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Guideline 2

Children and adolescents

The recommended quantities of vegetables and fruit intakes for children and adolescents vary depending on their

age and sex.^9 To meet the dietary recommendations, children and adolescents need to approximately double their

overall vegetable consumption^9 and increase the overall variety of vegetables consumed. Current fruit intakes by

2–3 year olds are close to the recommended levels but need to increase proportionately with age.

A wide variety of different coloured, textured and tasting vegetables and fruit, both fresh and cooked, should be

offered frequently to toddlers and preschoolers. Parents and carers can provide model behaviour by consuming a

wide range of vegetables and fruit.

Children and adolescents should be encouraged to select a wide variety of vegetables and fruit, at meal times

and between meals. In recent years, most Australian states and territories have improved the nutritional quality

of food supplied at schools through strategies incorporating a colour-coded system in which vegetables, including

legumes/beans, and fruit are classified ‘green’ with the recommendation that children eat plenty.431-438 Fruit can be

‘fast food’ to help satisfy increasing appetites. unless prescribed by a dietitian, special diets that restrict intake

of any fruit or vegetables should be avoided for children and adolescents. The intake of energy-dense hot fried

potato chips as a snack or with meals should be limited.

Older people

Although most of the emphasis is on the value of dietary patterns rich in vegetables and fruit throughout life, there

is still benefit in adopting such habits later in life. In general, older adults tend to have higher intakes of fruit and

vegetables than younger adults.^45 Due to poor dentition, softer textured or cooked vegetables and fruit may be

preferable for some older people. Tinned and/or frozen varieties are nutritious alternatives to raw produce.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Very low intakes of vegetables and fruit have been described among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander groups

in urban and rural communities.30,353,439,440 Availability of quality fresh produce can be a particular problem in

many remote areas.28,317,356 Frozen and canned vegetables and fruit, plus available traditional plant foods, are

nutritious alternatives.

2.3 Enjoy grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high

cereal fibre varieties

2 .3.1 Setting the scene

Foods originating from grains (cereals) include those from wheat, oats, rice, barley, millet and corn. They range

from highly nutrient-dense wholegrain breads and grain (cereal) foods such as oats, to lower-nutrient dense white

rice, white bread, pasta and noodles. Excluded are refined grain (cereal) food products with high levels of added

sugar, fat (in particular saturated fat) and/or salt/sodium, such as cakes.

Key nutrients in wholegrain foods include starch (complex carbohydrate), protein, dietary fibre, B group vitamins,

vitamin E, iron, zinc, magnesium and phosphorus. Other protective components are fermentable carbohydrates,

oligosaccharides, flavonoids, phenolics, phytoestrogens, lignans, protease inhibitors, saponins and selenium.35,36

In Australia it is mandatory for wheat flour used in bread making to be fortified with folic acid and thiamin, and for

the salt used to be iodised.^441