Over 99% of Australian kids not eating enough vegies

Data released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics from the Australian Health Survey (AHS) has revealed that more than 96% of Australians are not eating enough vegetables and legumes, and 90% are not having enough milk, cheese and yoghurt for optimal health.

This is the first time that the AHS — the largest and most comprehensive health survey in Australia — has compared food consumption against the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Some of the alarming findings include:

• Just one woman in every 1000 aged over 50 years is consuming enough dairy;
• Less than 1% of children are getting enough vegetables;
• Less than 10% of children aged 9–11 years and less than 2% of adolescents are meeting the recommended dairy serves.

The statistics have prompted a united effort by Dairy Australia and AUSVEG to encourage Australians to double their intake of vegetables and add an extra a serve of dairy to their diet.

Lucinda Hancock, accredited nutritionist at Nutrition Australia, said, “Australians are not meeting the recommended serves across all five healthy food groups. We know that consumers are overloaded with confusing information about nutrition, but the solution is simple: we need to be eating less ‘junk food’ and more from the five food groups — particularly vegetables, legumes, milk, yoghurt and cheese.”

Shaun Lindhe, AUSVEG spokesperson, said, “Only 4% of the population is getting enough vegetables. We want to urge parents to reconsider their children’s vegetable intake, with 99% of children aged 2–18 years not meeting the recommended serves. The AHS has found that on average, Australians are only eating 2.7 serves of vegetables or legumes a day; however, the Australian Dietary Guidelines recommends an adult eats between five to six serves each day.”

Lindhe said that many people don’t know the size or number of serves they should be consuming. One serve of vegetables is equivalent to half a cup of cooked vegetables, half a medium potato or one cup of salad vegetables.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines use scientific evidence to recommend the type and quantity of food needed for health and wellbeing and to reduce the risk of diet-related conditions and chronic disease.

A number of programs have been developed to assist Australians to improve their eating habits. Dairy Australia has facilitated the development of the Foods That Do Good communication program to provide health professionals with a central source of nutrition information. The website features a nutrition calculator that provides summaries of the Australian Dietary Guidelines serve recommendations across each of the five food groups, specific to age groups and genders.

A range of healthy recipes designed to help Australia meet their recommended serves for dairy and vegetables has also been developed and can be accessed from the Legendairy website.