A new study has found in five years’ time Australians are likely to be eating more junk food and less fruit and vegetables.
Right now we are eating about four serves of “discretionary foods” high in salt, fat, and sugar daily, and CSIRO research has found that was likely to increase 18 per cent by 2030.
This could cause a whole lot of health problems, hurting individuals and the taxpayers’ purse.
So what is standing in the way of better eating in Australia? And how can we tackle the issue?
What Aussies are eating
To find out what the average Aussie is eating today BTN High took to the streets to investigate what young people’s diets look like.
Probably not the best. I get quite a bit of take-out food … and then I sometimes eat healthy a couple days of the week. — Tom, 17
I do get a lot of take-out, but mum makes some cooked meals throughout the week. — Judd, 17
I eat anything but I wouldn’t say it’s a good diet, at all. — Elsie, 19
It’s okay. I’m pescetarian so I don’t eat meat and I do a lot of my own cooking. Love pasta … try to get my veggies in. — Chester, 19
I would say my diet varies a bit. I try to eat pretty healthy most of the time but there’ll be days where I’ll have dessert and stuff. — Leelu, 18
Nutrition scientist Gilly Hendrie studies what people eat and how they can be supported to eat better, and co-authored the CSIRO study.
“The National Preventive Health Strategy gives us really clear targets around a healthy diet and what we’re striving for. So for this research we wanted to see how we were tracking against those targets,” she said.
The strategy’s goals for 2030 include:
- increasing fruit consumption to an average of 2 serves per day
- increasing vegetable consumption to an average of 5 servings per day
- reducing the proportion of total energy intake from discretionary foods from over 30 per cent to less than 20 per cent.
But Dr Hendrie said the CSIRO’s study, which examined nine years’ worth of CSIRO Healthy Diet Score surveys and used modelling to make predictions, found instead of moving towards these goals we were actually going backwards.
“We used data from over 270,000 Australians. We looked at the trends. And then we projected forward out to 2030 and found a concerning decline in our diet quality,” she said.
By 2030 fruit intake is predicted to decrease by 9.7 per cent and discretionary food intake is likely to increase by 18.3 per cent, while vegetable intake is forecast to remain stable but well short of national targets.
Making change
Dr Hendrie said striving to eat a balanced diet was one way to help make change at an individual level.
But out on the street most of the teens we spoke with did not know how many serves of fruit and vegetables are recommended each day.
I remember you need five fruits. — Elsie, 19
No, I don’t think I know. — Maisie, 18
I don’t know, five veg, something like that? — Chester, 19
Two serves of fruit and seven serves of vegetable? — Kendra, 18
I should know this, but, um, no. — Harriet, 18
The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend we eat two serves of fruit a day and five serves of vegetables.
“A serve of fruit is easy, it’s usually a piece, so a banana or an apple,” Dr Hendrie said.
“[A serve of] vegetables is a cup of salad vegetables … or half a cup of cooked vegetables, or a medium potato.”
Dr Hendrie said on average we were eating “about half of what we should”.
She said a cheap and easy way to boost fruit and vegetable intake was to incorporate canned and frozen products.
“If canned veg, frozen veg, makes it easier use it. Get it on your plate — amazing,” she said.
Complicating factors
But boosting your fresh food intake and cutting back on treats is not always a simple task.
Dr Hendrie said a range of factors influenced our diets like cost of living, education, culture around cooking, and where you live — which all needed to be addressed to reach our 2030 health targets.
“Fresh produce fluctuates in price a lot more than discretionary foods do so that makes it more difficult for some people to budget and plan,” she said.
Discretionary foods include junk food that is often highly processed and high in saturated fat, salt, and sugar.
“Things like takeaway, soft drink, but also things like processed meats, cakes and biscuits, pies, chips, lollies, chocolate, ice cream,” Dr Hendrie said.
The CSIRO study concluded that without “significant intervention” meeting Australia’s preventive health dietary targets would be difficult.
And not achieving them could have a big impact for individuals and society.
“We know that too much of those nutrients [in junk food] places us at risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure,” Dr Hendri said.
“Chronic conditions place an enormous pressure on our health system. Rates of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease are increasing, and once we get to that point of needing treatment, whether it’s medication or hospitalisation, it costs [taxpayers] a lot of money.”
She said Australia needed to find ways to make fresh produce more available and more affordable for everyone.
“In rural and remote areas it’s more difficult to get fresh produce consistently throughout the year, and then at the community level how can we make it normal to eat [healthy food]?” she said.
“[We need] healthy lunch boxes, healthy snacks at sports venues on the weekend, and also in our own homes.”
What’s being done?
State and federal governments have implemented numerous healthy eating policies and awareness campaigns in the past such as a “traffic light” system in school canteens, and other countries have too.
However, the CSIRO study found when it came to research trials, community programs, and government initiatives to increase fruit and vegetable intake, large and lasting changes had rarely been achieved.
The introduction of a sugar tax — raising the price of sweet foods in stores — has been proposed in Australia, and there is evidence from overseas that this approach can lead to reduction in consumption.
Out on the street, young people had their own ideas for change too.
Probably parents teaching their kids too. Start their life with a more healthy diet and healthy lifestyles. — Leelu, 18
I think having more healthy options available everywhere, in schools, at uni. There’s a Maccas, Hungry Jacks, or KFC everywhere. But if you had easy, quick, cheap [and healthy] options like that all around you that would probably help as well. — Kendra, 18
People getting comfortable and building routines with cooking and having an education system that sets that up that for us. Things taste best when you make them yourself as well. — Chester, 19
