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The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has developed a tool which assesses the quality of a person’s diet against the Australian Dietary Guidelines. More than 40,000 Australians took part in the CSIRO Healthy Diet Score survey, which gave Australian diets a rating of just 61 out of 100, or a grade C report card.
As a nation our junk food intake was found to be three-times higher than the recommended daily limit.
According to Professor Manny Noakes, CSIRO Research Director for Nutrition and Health and the co-author of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet Online, “The scores were fairly unflattering across all respondents. If we were handing out report cards for diet quality then Australia would only get a C.”
“While many people scored highly in categories such as water intake and the variety of foods consumed, there is certainly lots of room for improvement in other areas,” said Professor Noakes. “What we’re finding is people are having larger portions of junk food, more often. This type of food is no longer just an indulgence, its become mainstream and Australians are eating it each and every day.”
Another area of concern was dairy food intake with the average survey respondent receiving a poor score of only 49 out of 100 in this category.
“When it comes to getting the right amount of dairy, it’s not just about the quality – such as choosing reduced fat milk over full cream; it is also largely dependent on having the right quantity. Having an inadequate amount of dairy can lead to people being malnourished and other long-term health problems, no matter what age you are,” Professor Noakes said.
Women out perform men
The survey found that diet quality improves with age, with female responders aged over 70 receiving the best result (71) of any age category. Women also scored better than men in all food categories with the exception of breads and cereals. The biggest difference seen between men and women was in the consumption of discretionary foods and vegetables, with women scoring 12 and 13 points higher.
Occupation and its impact on diet quality
There was a large variation in diet quality scores among occupations, ranging between 55 and 67 points. The best scoring occupations based on responders were personal trainers (66.8), retirees (65.9), health care (64.3), education (62.3) and research professionals (62.2).
The lowest scoring occupations were construction (55.3), buying/purchasing (55.6), operations/logistics (55.9), production (56.2) and the unemployed (56.9).
NSW North Coast tops diet score
The survey found that the Coffs Harbour/Grafton region is home to Australia’s healthiest eaters. The region topped the list with a diet quality score of 64.1, three points above the national average.
Also scoring higher than average was the NSW Central West region (63.4), followed by the South Australian Outback (63.4), Warrnambool/ South West region in Victoria (62.7), and the Melbourne Inner East area (62.7).
The 5 lowest scoring areas included Wide Bay (56.4), Moreton Bay North (57.0), Mackay (57.2) and Logan/Beaudesert (57.6) in Queensland and Blacktown (58) in New South Wales.
How do you measure up?
The CSIRO Healthy Diet Score is a free 15-minute online assessment which evaluates diet quality and identifies areas of improvement.
Professor Noakes said, “The online assessment provides Australians with a simple and trusted way of self-assessing the quality of their diet and how they compare to others of the same age, gender, generation, profession as well as people from the same State and across the country. We would encourage people to take the test regularly to ensure they are improving their eating behaviour and overall health and wellbeing.”