Dietary Guidelines say reduce sugar and soft drink intake

Sean Parnell
APRIL 1, 2016
THE AUSTRALIAN
If you lost your way somewhere between the new year’s resolution to eat better and the Easter egg throwdown, we are here to guide you back to a healthy diet.
It is commonly thought that 8700 kilojoules a day is a good threshold for adults. But a recent national survey put the average actual intake at 9655kJ for men and 7402 kJ for women, and obesity threatens children and adults alike.
The Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend you take into account your age and activity level, then make the right choices: enjoy nutritious foods from five key groups, limit foods containing saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol, and drink plenty of water.
More than half of all Australians get more than 10 per cent of daily energy intake from added sugar, honey and syrups, and sugar in fruit juice.
Research by the University of Sydney, published in the British Journal of Nutrition, found 76 per cent of children aged nine to 13 exceeded the 10 per cent limit recommended by the World Health Organisation.
“Whilst we have seen some improvements in the diets of young children, older teens and males in particular are consuming a large amount of added sugar from products such as soft drinks,” says University of Sydney professor of public health nutrition Timothy Gill.
“This is particularly concerning as these foods not only add a lot of calories and provide little or no nutrition but they also displace more nutritious foods such as vegetables and fruits or milk, which are important for teenagers in this stage of rapid development.”
While Britain recently introduced a so-called sugar tax on heavily sweetened soft drinks, and there have been calls to do the same in Australia, the federal government has urged people to use common sense.
It is not only soft drinks that are likely to contain a high sugar content but also energy drinks and so-called healthy cold drinks available from major chains.
Energy drinks can be particularly problematic because of the active ingredient of caffeine.
A University of Adelaide study published in the International Journal of Cardiology looked at patients aged 13 to 40 and attending a South Australian emergency department for heart palpitations. It found 36 per cent had consumed at least one energy drink in the 24 hours before the hospital visit.
“Those patients who were heavy consumers of energy drinks were found to have a significantly higher frequency of heart palpitations than those who consumed less than one per day,” says researcher Scott Willoughby.
Meanwhile, a coalition of health groups, LiveLighter Victoria, surveyed store-bought smoothies, frappes and shakes, and found half of the 40 drinks surveyed had more kilojoules than a McDonalds Big Mac burger (2060kj).
A survey has found that almost half of Australian parents with primary school age children worry their kids cannot make healthy choices.
Worse still, according to the survey by the Stephanie Alexander Kitchen Garden Foundation and Medibank Private, about three in five parents are concerned their child prefers processed foods.
Parents and their children, aged five to 12, participated in the survey. While there was some confusion over where foods came from and how to cook or prepare them, families who ate dinner around the table at least once a week had more informed kids.
“With one in four Australian children obese or overweight, it’s vital that we teach our children to eat well and to be active,” says Medibank’s chief medical officer, Linda Swan.
Adding salt to food makes it more palatable and encourages overconsumption, according to Deakin University research published in two recent journals.
While reducing salt content is one possible solution, the head of Deakin’s Centre for Advanced Sensory Science, Russell Keast, suggests it may be counter-productive given the need for food to be palatable. Instead, he suggests more research on ensuring fatty foods create a feeling of fullness