Food Variety And A Healthy Diet

Food variety means eating a wide variety of foods from each of the five food groups, in the amounts recommended. Eating many different foods helps maintain a healthy interesting diet and provides adequate nutrition. Eating a mixture of foods can help prevent diseases such as diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Five major food groups

It is important that you eat a balanced diet with foods from each of the five major food groups. Choosing a variety of foods within and across food groups is also important. In each food group, different foods provide more of some nutrients than others. If you eat a variety of foods from each group, you will probably get all the nutrients provided by the foods in that group. For example, some vegetables contain vitamin C (capsicums), while others (asparagus and spinach) are high in folate.

Most of the variety in your foods should come from plant foods (fruits, vegetables and grains). Choosing a variety of foods within each group will also help to make your meals interesting, so you don't get bored with your diet. The major food groups are:

• Fruit

• Vegetables, legumes
• Lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes
• Bread, cereals, rice, pasta, noodles

• Milk, yoghurt, cheese.

Ways to include the five food groups in your diet

It’s not hard to include foods from the major food groups into snacks and meals. Here are some suggestions:

Fruit - easy to carry as a snack or it can be included as a part of most meals. For example, try a banana with your breakfast cereal, an apple for morning tea and an orange for an afternoon snack.

Vegetables and legumes - raw or cooked vegetables can be used as a snack food or as a part of lunch and dinner. Salad vegetables can be used as a sandwich filling. Vegetable soup can make a healthy lunch. Stir-fries, vegetable patties and vegetable curries make nutritious evening meals. Try raw vegetables like carrot and celery sticks for a snack ‘on the run’.

Lean meat, fish, poultry, eggs, nuts, legumes and tofu - these can all provide protein. It’s easy to include a mixture of protein into snacks and meals.

Bread, cereals, rice, pasta and noodles - grains and cereals come from a wide variety of sources including breakfast cereals (oats, muesli and wholegrain flakes), wholemeal breads and biscuits, rice, barley, corn and varieties of pasta.

Milk, yoghurt and cheese - eat a diverse range of dairy foods including milk, cottage cheese, yogurt and other types of cheese.

Sample serves from the five main food groups

Fruit

One serve equals:

• 1 medium piece (apple, banana, orange, pear etc)

• 2 small pieces (apricots, plums, kiwi fruit)
• 1 cup canned fruit
• 4 dried apricot halves

• 1/2 tablespoons sultanas.

Vegetables and legumes

One serve equals:

• 75g (1/2 cup) cooked vegetables

• 75g (1/2 cup) cooked dried beans, peas or lentils
• 1 cup salad vegetables

• 1 potato.

Meat, poultry, fish and eggs

One serve equals:

• 65-100g cooked meat or chicken (? cup lean mince, 2 small chops, 2 slices of roast meat)

• 1/2 cup cooked dried or canned beans, lentils, chick peas or split peas
• 80-100g fish fillet
• 2 small eggs
• 1/3 cup peanuts or almonds

• 1/2 cup sunflower or sesame seeds.

Breads and cereals

One serve equals:

• 2 slices of bread

• 1 medium bread roll
• 1 cup cooked rice, pasta or noodles
• 1 cup porridge
• 1/2 cup muesli

• 1 1/3 cup breakfast cereal flakes.

Milk, yoghurt and cheese

One serve equals:

• 250ml (one cup) fresh, long life or reconstituted dried milk

• 1/2 cup evaporated milk
• 40g (2 slices) cheese

• 200g (1 small carton) yoghurt.

Why food variety is good for your health

Eating a wide variety of foods helps to improve your health and may help prevent diseases like:

• Diabetes

• Cardiovascular (heart and circulation) disease

• Cancer.

Good food variety means good nutrition

If you eat a variety of good food, your diet will provide you with adequate nutrition. However, you should remember that:

• The way in which foods are grown, stored and prepared can affect nutrient value.

• Food variety is not based on how much of each food you eat or how often you eat it.

• Providing energy (kilojoules) is not the only reason for food variety. It also helps ensure that important dietary components such as fibre, which provide no nutrition, are included in your diet.

Things to remember

Eating a wide food variety of healthy foods (especially fruits and vegetables) helps to protect against diabetes, cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Food variety means eating foods with different nutrients and from each of the five different food groups in the recommended amounts.