Consumers

The Australian Dietary Guidelines provide up-to-date advice about the amount and kinds of foods that we need to eat for health and wellbeing. This includes information on the number of serves from each of the five food groups required for healthy eating depending upon your age, gender, weight, height and physical activity levels.

It is important to consume a wide variety of foods from the five food groups every day and drink plenty of water. The five food groups are:

vegetables and legumes/beans
fruit
grain (cereal) foods, mostly wholegrain and/or high fibre varieties
lean meat and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds and legume/beans
milk, yoghurt, cheese and/or alternatives, mostly reduced fat

The Australian Dietary Guidelines suggest that additional portions of the five core food groups, unsaturated spreads/oils or discretionary food choices are needed only by those that are taller or more active to meet additional energy requirements. They also recommend that Australians consume discretionary foods ‘only sometimes and in small amounts’.

Discretionary foods, however, including confectionery, can add variety and enjoyment to eating within the context of a healthy, balanced diet – it is about moderation.

Being balanced is all about our food choices firstly and balancing food intake according to our personal needs which takes into account our activity levels.

This means balancing our energy intake with our energy output.

Understanding energy
Food provides us with the energy to do daily tasks, exercise and keep our hearts beating and lungs breathing. This energy is measured in kilojoules (kJ) (or both kJ and calories (Cal). There are about 4.18 kilojoules in a calorie.

The energy represents the total amount of kilojoules from protein, fat, carbohydrates, including sugars, dietary fibre and alcohol that is released when food is used by the body.

If we eat too much energy, we do not become more energetic. Instead, the extra energy is converted into body fat and we gain weight. It is important to get our energy balance right, so that energy from food and beverages is the same as the energy burned up during the day through our activity, including keeping our bodies functioning.

Our energy needs are different from everyone else and change during our lifetime. They are based on age, life stage, gender, physical activity and other individual factors. For example, the reference amount for an average adult diet is based on 8700kJ, however daily energy requirements vary depending on personal needs.

Understanding sugar, fat and salt
The confectionery industry acknowledges there is public interest in foods containing high levels of sugar, fat and salt and that over consumption can impact people’s health and wellbeing.

Salt
Sodium is a component of salt. It affects health and high levels have been linked with high blood pressure and stroke, which is why it is included in the mandatory nutrition information panel (NIP). Sodium is also important for health – it regulates the water balance and controls muscle and nerve function.

Sodium may be added to food preparations for flavour and helps preserve foods and occurs naturally in foods. In confectionery, salt is generally present in insignificant quantities. The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend choosing foods low in salt. For more information on sodium and salt click here.

Sugars
In Australia, most of the sugar comes from the sugar cane plant which is refined to sucrose or table sugar. Other sugars are glucose, galactose, fructose and lactose.

In addition to bringing sweetness, sugars provide many functions in food, such as helping provide taste, texture and colour, preserving, lowering the freezing point in frozen foods and fermentation.

All sugars are carbohydrates. Sugars are present naturally in a range of fresh foods such as fruits, vegetables and dairy foods and also as an ingredient in a range of processed foods and beverages, including confectionery.

From a digestive perspective, the human body is unable to distinguish between the sugars naturally present in foods and those added to manufactured foods and drinks as the body digests and uses the energy in the same way.

The amount of total sugars, naturally occurring and added, is indicated as a subset of carbohydrates in the mandatory NIP. By law sugars must also be declared in the ingredient list.

The Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Code) also provides reference values for an average adult diet based on daily energy requirements of 8700 kJ. They use a reference value of 90 grams for total sugars.

Findings from the latest Australian nutrition survey (April 2016) indicates around 20% (105g) of our dietary energy comes from total sugars. This is about 25 teaspoons of sugar (there are approximately 4.2g of sugar per teaspoon).

In March 2015, the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended the target of less than 10% total energy from ‘free sugars’. Free sugars are any sugars added by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus the sugars in honey, fruit juice and fruit juice concentrates. This definition was developed by the WHO and is broader than ‘added sugars’ used in the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS)¹, overall 52% of Australians usually exceed the WHO recommendation of less than 10% of total energy intake from free sugars. However, average intake of free sugars is 10.9% of daily total energy – equivalent to 60g per day – and comparable to the WHO recommendation of less than 10%.

81% of free sugars in the average diet are contributed from discretionary foods. This finding aligns with the ABS² (May 2014) findings which showed, on average, around 35% of our total energy intake comes from discretionary foods – foods that should be enjoyed sometimes and in moderation.

Sugars have been under scrutiny for a number of years. Sugars are not particularly fattening, however, when too much energy is consumed, from any source, including sugars, and left unbalanced with physical activity, this will lead to weight gain. Excess sugars leads to excess energy and it is the excess energy or over supply of food that is linked to overweight and obesity and associated diseases, rather than the sugar specifically.

Sugars can be part of a healthy balanced diet and lifestyle when they are consumed in moderation and within daily energy needs. The Australian confectionery industry supports the Australian Dietary Guidelines and Australian Guide to Healthy Eating that remind people that it is important to limit the consumption of foods and drinks with too much sugar, fat and salt and this includes confectionery (chocolate and sugar confectionery).

Fat
Fat is an essential part of our diet and important for good health. There are different types of fats, some are healthier than others. To help you stay healthy, it is important to eat unsaturated fats in small amounts as part of a balanced diet.

Fat is listed in the NIP as total fat and a separate entry must also be provided for saturated fat.

Eaten in excess, all fats can contribute to weight gain. A diet low in saturated and trans fats may help lower your risk of heart disease.

Trans fats have largely been removed from the Australian food supply and now contribute only very low levels to the diets of Australians, in fact, below the WHO recommendations of less than 1% of dietary energy. This is an example of food industry innovation and product reformulation to protect public health.

Being balanced is all about our food choices firstly and balancing food intake according to our individual needs which takes into account our activity levels. The principles outlined in the Australian Dietary Guidelines of balance, variety and enjoyment provide direction for the Australian population on how to select a healthy diet.

Be active
People of all ages benefit from regular physical activity.

Health authorities encourage everyone to be active each day and limit sedentary behaviour as being good for health. Being physically active is important for growth and development in younger people and for health and wellbeing as we become older citizens. Physical activity has other benefits too – from making you feel good to helping you relax.

The evidence reviewed for the Australian Dietary Guidelines (2013) suggests that a minimum of 45-60 minutes per day is required for both cardiovascular health and weight maintenance. Australia’s Physical Activity and Sedentary Behaviour Guidelines include physical activity recommendations by life stage.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommends children engage in 60 minutes a day of physical activity and for adults 150 minutes spread through the week³.

The easiest way to be physically active is to include a variety of age appropriate activities as part of your daily routine. This can include sport, a brisk walk, taking the dog for a walk, playing with the children, gardening or raking leaves, household tasks like cleaning windows, using the stairs instead of lifts when there is this option, meeting a friend and going for a walk or having a game of tennis or simply leaving the car behind when you go to the shops. The everyday, incidental activity counts too.

Regular physical activity or exercise as part of the everyday routine also helps you to use up the energy taken in from the food and beverage you consume and therefore reduce the risk of storing excess energy in the body as fat. The key is to find a healthy balance and to look for opportunities to move more whenever you can.

Did you know: you use about 300kJ an hour sitting down, 1550kJ an hour swimming, 1900kJ an hour going for a walk and 2000kJ an hour bike riding.

Keeping active is good for your body, mind and soul and feeling better means happier, healthier living.

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