A new report revealed that Australians’ quality of diet across all age groups are poor.

A report from the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW), Nutrition across the life stages, showed that Australians across different stages of life are not generally meeting Australia’s food and nutrient recommendations. 

The Australian Dietary Guidelines encourage people to consume the right amounts of food from the 5 food groups, including vegetables, fruit, grains, lean meat and alternatives and dairy products and alternatives, while limiting intake of foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol.

According to AIHW, very few Australians consume enough vegetables. 

AIHW spokesperson Claire Sparke said, “this is at its worst among children aged 2-18, 99% of whom do not eat enough vegetables”. 

Similar results were seen for the other food groups – according to the average daily intake of foods for different age groups, only children aged 2–8 meet the fruit recommendations. 

For grains, only males aged 4–11, females aged 9–11 and females aged 71 and over meet the recommendations. Toddlers aged 2–3 are the only group to meet the dairy recommendations.

“We are also consuming too much added sugars, saturated fat and sodium (salt), which is probably because about one-third of Australians’ energy intake comes from discretionary food,” Ms Sparke said. 

The level of discretionary foods consumed, such as cakes, biscuits, confectionary and potato chips is even higher for teenagers, making up more than 40 per cent of their daily energy intake.

Despite these findings, there have been a general decrease in the contribution of added sugars and fat to Australians’ energy intake. 

For more information on the Australian Dietary Guidelines, visit www.eatforhealth.gov.au.