Eating a healthy, balanced diet based on whole foods can help us achieve optimal health throughout life. But knowing exactly what to eat can be confusing when there's so much conflicting advice from books, websites, TV programs, magazines and celebrity chefs. The National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) has released the latest 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines based on scientific evidence on what we should all be eating. Here's my handy summary to make things easier to digest:

Useful things when you're studying nutrition such as easy explanations of Dietary Guidelines, Nutrient Reference Values, Healthy Eating for teens, and A career as a dietitian.

The National Health and Medical Research Council released the draft of their Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) in December 2011 for public consultation.(1) The AGHE is a quick and simple pictorial guide to the types and amounts of foods that should be eaten in a healthy daily diet for all age groups.

It is believed the final document will be available towards the end of 2012.

The Dietary Guidelines - spelling out what foods Australians should eat - are being updated to reflect the latest knowledge on nutrition, diet and health. This latest 2011 revision has focused on food choice recommendations rather than on how much of certain nutrients you should consume, which was the approach of the 2003 version of the Dietary Guidelines. It runs for 288 pages with over 1,000 references. Here's a handy summary and a list of what's changed.

In April 2010, GoGrains released a report named ‘The Grains and Legumes Health Report'. It's a 27 page A4-size book that can be ordered or downloaded free from the GoGrains website. It gives you an overview of the latest scientific research about grains, legumes (dried peas, beans and lentils) and health.  The report reviews the health benefits of wholegrains and legumes with regards to cardiovascular health, type 2 diabetes, weight management and cancer. Here we present a short summary for students and teachers.

THESE DIETARY GUIDELINES ARE UNDER REVIEW AS AT DEC 2011.   Dietary guidelines are designed to give consumers a set of "eating rules" to plan their eating and improve their daily diet. If you eat according to the 13 guidelines that follow, your daily diet will be a healthy one that's likely to minimise your chances of diet-related illnesses such as heart disease, diabetes, certain cancers, obesity, gall bladder disease and dental caries.

Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) list the recommended intakes for energy (kilojoules), protein, fats, carbohydrate, fibre, vitamins, minerals and fluid, based on age, sex and life stages. They are used by dietitians, nutritionists and other health professionals to assess the dietary needs of individuals and groups (such as residents of nursing home or pupils in boarding schools). The NRVs are revised from time to time to reflect the latest scientific research.

Australia and New Zealand has figures for 33 essential nutrients (protein, vitamins, minerals, etc) which were published in 2006 by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC). They replace the earlier set of Recommended Dietary Intakes (RDIs) which dated back to 1991.

Exercise. We know it's good for us. We know we need to do it regularly. We know we'll feel good after we've done it. But still we have to force ourselves to get up and get moving.