Heads up, Aussies! Australia’s got a new food pyramid. Our food chart has just gotten the overhaul it needed. And about time!
Image reference: http://nutritionaustralia.org/
After 30 years of evolution, the 2015 Australian food pyramid finally nails the bullseye. It now presents what many of us, nutrition buffs, fitness experts, and hey, even centenarians have believed and known all along about diet and nutrition... the fact that vegetables and fruits should take centre stage in any healthy diet.
Out With the Old, In With the New
Awwww...sorry bread and grain food lovers but the new national diet is here to burst your bubble. Your favourite carbohydrates no longer occupy the pyramid base, the first level food group on which 70% of our diet should be based. Vegetables, legumes, and fruits are now virtually ensconced in that tier. Contrary to the old 2007 chart where bread, rice, oats, bran, and pasta shared the pyramid base with veggies, these types of carbohydrates have now been downgraded to the smaller secondary tier. Now, play close attention to the visuals. Notice that breads, crackers, and even the noodles in the bowl are brown, representing whole grain foods rather than the white, processed derivatives that have been staple drawings in the old food pyramids. Quinoa, whole grain cereal, couscous, and soba noodles are new highlights in this particular food group.
Let’s talk about the base. A large percentage of this level is covered in vegetables, a miniscule portion of which gives way to legumes. Fruits are partitioned into their own space, occupying a small percentage of the base. According to Nutrition Australia, the architect of the new food pyramid, one has to aim for 5 servings of vegetables (with the occasional legumes) and 2 servings of fruit a day.
Outside the base, new visual guidelines are added, encouraging the choice of water over other beverages and the incorporation of herbs and spices over other condiments such as MSG, salt, and sugar.
An even more compact third tier is equally divided between the dairy food group and the protein-rich group of fish, lean meat, nuts, and tofu. Interestingly, legumes such as lentils and beans doubly figure in this group as well. The cheese, yoghurt, and milk group provide alternative primary sources of calcium while the fish, nuts, lean meats, and beans group supplies the protein as well other vital vitamins and minerals.
The new chart visually nixes added sugar and salt. The old food pyramids, circa 1982 down to 2007 include sugar at the tippy-top. The new pyramid’s tip is now solely occupied by healthy fats which is essential to optimum neurological and cardiovascular functions. Healthy fats means unrefined unsaturated fats derived from plant-based food such as olive oil, raw and unprocessed peanut butter, raw nuts, and avocado.
There is absolutely no room for treats like pastries, chips, or ice-cream. A bummer of a food chart <Tee hee!> but the most nutritiously accurate and the best that we have ever come up with.
What the New Food Pyramid Implies
From the looks of it, the new food pyramid trashes fad diets and reiterates the importance of plant-based food in any nutrition plan. A large portion of nutritional emphasis should be given to vegetables and some on fruits and legumes to form the basis of anyone’s diet. Although the bulk of the nutrition nod is on vegetables, the chart in no way champions the vegan diet as the answer to balanced nutrition. Other food groups are included because these provide nutrients which a solely plant-based intake cannot provide. That is why...
Variety, the spice of life, is a key element that does away with palate boredom in the current food chart. A healthy eating plan, according to the present food design, includes many different types of food within a food group as well as the incorporation of servings from all food groups. It isn’t a healthy choice to bump out one or more food groups from one’s diet (unless instructed by your physician) as each has its own set of nutrients integral to human nutrition.
Another important detail: water should be your beverage of choice, always. Fresh fruit juices then should be counted into your fruit serving allotment for the day. Tea (unless tea can be classified under herbs?) and coffee don’t even figure in the food chart and definitely no sodas or shakes which simply bring in added sugar. Our sugar allotment should come from fruits, and notice that even these are limited, despite their inclusion in the prominent base group.
Aside from sugar, added salt is also given a thumbs-down. Our sodium requirements can be met by those in the food groups. The chart encourages us to train our taste buds to be happy with food flavoured with herbs and spices instead of salt.
There is absolutely no room for junk food. Well, that’s why they’re junk! And junk now encompasses anything with added salt or sugar, even if it’s got healthy milk or cheese in its ingredients list.
Although, the chart enjoins us to be active everyday, I personally wish they kept the visuals of those moving feet at the pyramid base as in the 2007 chart. Exercise is just as important to optimum health as good nutrition. You can’t have one without the other. Perhaps a snooze visual will be a great inclusion as well to indicate rest. Proper diet, exercise, and rest: my triumvirate for a healthy, happy you.