One food does not provide all the nutrients we need, having a balanced diet would help you obtain all the essential nutrients required for good health and the prevention of chronic diseases such as type 2 diabetes, heart disease, obesity, osteoporosis.
Base your meals and snacks on the FIVE CORE FOOD GROUPS:
Vegetables
Fruits
Grains- wholemeal, wholegrain or high fibre varieties
Dairy- reduced fat
Meat/alternatives- lean
Non-core foods are your discretionary i.e. junk foods such as hot chips, meat pies, soft drinks. They are typically ‘Energy-Dense-Nutrient-Poor’. The number of non-core food serves you can have in a day depends on your physical activity levels. If you are quite sedentary this would be 0.
Below is a table from the Australian Dietary Guidelines on the recommended number of core food group serves for YOUR AGE and GENDER. It also tells you what one serve of each food group means.
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