Tough Aussie food guidelines may be used here
Date: 15 Dec 2011
Strict nutrition guidelines proposed in Australia that recommend drastic cuts to potato, high-fat dairy and junk food consumption could become the foundation for future guidelines here.
Australia's National Health and Medical Research Council issued draft guidelines this week (www.eatforhealth.gov.au) that would radically transform most Australians' – and Kiwis' – diets if they were followed.
Based on the average diet, the council recommended eating 40 per cent less starchy vegetables, such as potatoes and kumara, half the amount of high-fat dairy products and – except for people who exercise vigorously – cutting out all "discretionary choice" foods such as cakes, burgers, soft drinks and alcohol.
The Health Ministry here said that, although its nutrition guidelines were independent of Australia, the finalised Australian guidelines would be a "key reference" for official dietary recommendations in New Zealand in future.
However, one of the authors of the Diet and Nutrition Survey – released in September – said there was "nothing massively wrong" with New Zealand's current guidelines.
Winsome Parnell, associate professor of human nutrition at Otago University, was particularly wary of the recommendation to cut down on starchy vegetable consumption.
A more sensible option was to minimise the fat eaten with potatoes – boiling, baking or mashing them rather than frying.
The Nutrition Survey, carried out in 2008 and 2009, had not highlighted starchy vegetable consumption as a problem, Dr Parnell said.
"I would say, though, that New Zealanders ... should pay heed to their fruit and vegetable intake."
Young people in particular were not eating enough of them.
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