Nutrition Guidelines and Eating without Calorie Counting

[Trusylver]

I believe most people have never read the nutritional guidelines in their respective countries and statistically, here in Australia only around %5 of people actually eat within those guidelines.

https://www.nhmrc.gov.au/adg

These are the Guidelines for Australia, with the added bonus of having access to download the "Educators Guide" this guide set out how a non registered dietitian can provide a nutritional plan that stay within the national guidelines without counting calories and allowing coaches,trainers and nutritionists to stay within scope of practice.

 

[Llama]

Thanks for posting! I stumbled across the Austrian guidelines a couple of years ago and got stuck on the amount of veggies they wanted people to eat. I love my veggies and generally have some with every meal and I was still barely meeting the requirements so it kind of put me off. But you just motivated me to look up some different ones from different countries.

 

[Cate]

Thanks, Tru. I’ll have a good look tomorrow when I’m on my laptop

 

[alligatorob]

I believe most people have never read the nutritional guidelines in their respective countries and statistically, here in Australia only around %5 of people actually eat within those guidelines.

Thanks for this, it is interesting, and lots of good info. Never have seen any similar US guide, but there might be one.

Don't expect there to be any big differences, nutrition is a universal. However we probably wouldn't have much for Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people.

 

[Llama]

I've been looking at the guidelines for different countries and while the basic idea is the same (eat veggies, pulses, grains, dairy, some fruit, some meat, fish, and healthy fat, and not too much highly processed food) portion sizes vary wildly.

 

[Llama]

Case in point: let's compare the UK description of a fruit/veg portion with the Austrian one.
UK: (copy/pasted from https://www.nhs.uk/live-well/eat-well/5-a-day/5-a-day-what-counts/ )

5 A Day: what counts?​

Almost all fruit and vegetables count towards your 5 A Day, so it may be easier than you think to get your recommended daily amount.

At a glance: what counts?​

• 80g of fresh, canned or frozen fruit and vegetables counts as 1 portion of your 5 A Day (but not potatoes and some other starchy foods). For tinned or canned fruit and vegetables, choose those in natural juice or water, with no added sugar or salt.
• 30g of dried fruit (this is equivalent to around 80g of fresh fruit) counts as 1 portion of your 5 A Day. Dried fruit should be eaten at mealtimes, not as a between-meal snack, to reduce the risk of tooth decay.

Some portions only count once in a day:

• 150ml of fruit juice, vegetable juice or smoothie. Limit the amount you drink to a combined total of 150ml a day. Crushing fruit and vegetables into juice and smoothies releases the sugars they contain, which can damage teeth. Juices and smoothies should be consumed at mealtimes, not as a between-meal snack, to reduce the risk of tooth decay.
• 80g of beans and pulses. These only count once as part of your 5 A Day, no matter how many you eat. This is because although they're a good source of fibre, they contain fewer nutrients than other fruits and vegetables.

Austria: (my translation from https://www.ages.at/mensch/ernaehrung-lebensmittel/ernaehrungsempfehlungen/die-oesterreichische-ernaehrungspyramide so please excuse accidental nonsense and typos)

Eat 5 portions of vegetables, pulses, and fruit. 3 portions of vegetables and/or pulses and 2 portions of fruit are ideal.
A portion equals:
- 200-300 g of cooked veg
- 100-200 g of raw veg
- 75-100 g of lettuce
- 70-100 g (dry measure) of pulses (or
- 150-200 g cooked)
- 125-150 g of fruit
- 200 ml of fruit or veg juice

Edited to add: the US doesn't use weight measures, of course - and I can't be bothered to convert it all - but they want you to have 4-5 portions EACH of fruit and veg: https://www.heart.org/en/healthy-living/healthy-eating/add-color/fruits-and-vegetables-serving-sizes

Australia recommends 5 portions of veg a day plus 2 of fruit but as far as I can tell their veg portions are only 75 g while a fruit portion is 150 g.
https://www.eatforhealth.gov.au/food-essentials/how-much-do-we-need-each-day/serve-sizes

 

[Trusylver]

like the UK some foods here in Australia also only count once, I like hummus on my chicken but you can only count one serve of hummus. If I have more than 2 tablespoons the extra counts a discretionary food.

Also some foods that may be fruit or veg are counted in discretionary also due to either a very high fat or sugar content. Avocado is included in the healthy fats category.

Legumes can be included in the same category as lean meat as a meat substitute when planning out a foundation diet

I have found building a nutritional plans using the educator guide to be quite different from a calorie counting and macro method.

My end of semester nutrition exam next month will largely include building meal plans from the guides. I have put some of the calculations for the educator guide method into a spreadsheet which I am happy to share once my exam is over (we were told we could make our own spreadsheet but not use one created by others but should be safe to share once exams are finished)

This table from the book shows foundation servings before being individualised with extra based on activity levels etc.

 

[Llama]

I think the guidelines (any of these countries') are a good starting point for a diet plan. But the more detail they add (no matter how theoretically healthy and helpful) the less doable they look to the basic target audience: people who have no idea about nutrition and who don't want to do a whole meal plan.
I think the thing I learned from my little comparison is that the Austrian recommendations are an outlier I'm going to ignore, I'm easily making the recommendations from other countries, and I don't need to worry as much as I do. Because when I do I get frustrated and risk binging.