Dietary guidelines
don't work.
Here's how to fix them
Duane Mellor* and Cathy Knight-Agarwal** ietary guidelines come
relevant. Hopefully, then people will be
targets so we don’t feel we are constantly
under a lot of fire. They
more likely to follow them.
“failing”? For instance, rather than pushing
have been accused of not
If we don’t, we risk investing more research
just the “5+2” a day (five serves of veg-
being based on evidence,
time and taxpayers’ dollars into producing
etables and two of fruit a day) as the only
not being environmentally
documents many people seem to dismiss.
goal worth aiming for, we should start with a positive message encouraging people to
sustainable and being out
eat more fruit and vegetables than they’re
fail to change people’s eating habits, as
Are dietary guidelines just too hard to meet?
shown in Australia and the US.
of touch with nutritional science. They also
eating now. We could do this by breaking
There is good evidence from dietary sur-
this down into achievable steps, for instance,
The time has come for us to rethink the
veys that only 4% of Australians meet the
recommending one more piece of fruit today
purpose of dietary guidelines, what they
recommendations made in dietary guidelines,
and two more tomorrow.
contain and how they deliver their message.
particularly when it comes to eating enough
As part of this, we need to think about
vegetables.
Nutrition “experts” also often say “everything in moderation” when recommending
how the public views dietary guidelines (and
So, should we make dietary guidelines
a balanced or healthy diet. This may have
other health guidelines) so they become
easier or at least have more achievable
merits. But clearly, some people cannot limit,
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