Wednesday, April 11, 2007

What Are The Ten Dietary Guidelines For Australians?

Healthy eating and the general health of the population are
concerns for many governments around the world. The National
Health and Medical Research Council of Australia prescribes 10
dietary guidelines to help people design their usual diet so
that it will promote a healthy lifestyle and will present a
minimum risk for the development of diet related diseases.

These guidelines are:

1. Eat a wide variety of different foods.

A different variety of foods gives your body the necessary
vitamins, minerals, and other nutrients that it needs to remain
healthy.

2. Eat lots of whole grain breads and cereals, vegetables, and
fruits.

Your body needs the fiber, vitamins, and minerals that can only
be obtained from these items in their natural state.

3. Ensure that your diet is low in saturated fat.

Saturated fat increases your cholesterol levels and could lead
to heart diseases and other ailments.

4. Balance food intake and physical activity to maintain a
healthy body weight.

Energy taken into your body in the form of food needs to be a
burnt off in the form of exercise, otherwise your body
transforms the food into fat.

5. Limit your intake if you drink alcohol.

Alcohol does not give your body any useful nutrients; it
suppresses your inhibitions and could lead to other
well-documented problems as well.

6. Consume only moderate amounts of sugars, including foods
that contain added sugar.

Sugar contains a large amount of calories that can be very
difficult to balance with physical activity, especially given
the amount of sugars that we find in our modern day foods and
candies.

7. Make low-salt foods your preference and use salt sparingly.

Salt is known to increase blood pressure, which could lead to
all kinds of cardiovascular and other diseases.

8. Encourage and support breast-feeding.

For the first six months of an infant's life natural breast
feeding can provide the child with all the natural nutrients
that it needs, provided that the mother is well-nourished.

9. Girls and women should eat more foods containing calcium.

Women suffer greater risk from osteoporosis and must therefore
increase their calcium intake to fight this terrible disease.

10. Girls, women, vegetarians, and athletes should eat more
foods containing iron.

The iron requirements of women and girls are almost doubled by
menstrual losses. Iron deficiency in the diets of vegetarians
and the increased demands put on the bodies of athletes also
require them to increase their iron intake.

Even though these 10 dietary guidelines were developed in
Australia for Australians they are equally applicable to
anybody else in any country of the world, and every single
person will benefit by following them.

About The Author: Tisha Diaz recommends the fat loss and weight
control program at http://www.losefatpro.com/ that will help you
get rid of those excess pounds and help you reach and maintain a
healthy body weight.

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