Are you eating your vegetables before you have your cake or muffin or biscuits or….?

That thing  we all go through as kids about not being allowed to have dessert until we finish our vegetables is not the same when we grow up.

According to a new report from The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare, we are not getting enough of, or the right type, of food from the five food groups.

The report, “Nutrition across the life stages”, shows we are just not eating our enough of our vegetables before we eat our discretionary foods, like cakes, biscuits, confectionary, pastries, potato chips, soft drinks and alcoholic drinks.

AIHW spokesperson Claire Sparke said; “For example, very few of us eat enough vegetables. This is at its worst among children aged 2–18, 99 per cent of whom do not eat enough vegetables.”

A discretionary food is one which we choose to eat and does not necessarily supply us with the nutrients we need for health.

The Australian Dietary Guidelines provide direction on eating the right types of foods and quantities to meet our nutritional needs. Foods like vegetables, fruit, grains, lean meat and their alternatives, dairy products are encouraged, whilst added sugars, saturated fats and added salt are limited.

Alcohol is another item to limit, and the report shows that this guidance is being ignored, with adults aged 51–70 having alcoholic drinks making up more than one-fifth of discretionary food intake.

A couple more of the Reports findings;

• For grains, only males aged 4–11, females aged 9–11 and females aged 71 and over meet the recommendations.
• Toddlers aged 2–3 are the only group to meet the dairy recommendations.

The Report also considered physical activity and found it is not as good as it should be either.

Ms Sparke said;  “In the teenage years, when discretionary food intake peaks, it is concerning that the data also shows a decline in physical activity at the same time. Physical activity levels are lower among teenagers—both girls and boys—than any other age group.”

The Report can be found at https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/food-nutrition/nutrition-across-the-life-stages/contents/table-of-contents