The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating explained: the five food groups, the Australian Dietary Guidelines (NHMRC, 2013), energy in kilojoules with the 8,700 kJ reference, and a free calculator. Independent tool, not the NHMRC.
The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating (AGHE) is the official visual guide that accompanies the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Published by the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in 2013, it's a circular plate split into five food groups by area, with vegetables and grain foods taking the two largest shares. Here's what it recommends, how the five groups work, and why Australian energy is measured in kilojoules.
The AGHE plate divides into five groups by area: vegetables and legumes/beans and grain (cereal) foods take the two largest shares, followed by fruit, milk/yoghurt/cheese and alternatives, and lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds and legumes/beans. Eating a variety from all five groups every day is the core of the guidelines.
Water sits alongside the plate as the recommended drink, and small amounts of healthy unsaturated oils are included. Foods outside the five groups — the 'discretionary foods' like biscuits, chips, processed meats, sugary drinks and alcohol — are to be eaten only sometimes and in small amounts. They aren't a food group and don't appear on the plate.
The plate is the visual; the Australian Dietary Guidelines are the five evidence-based recommendations behind it. In brief: achieve and maintain a healthy weight by being active and choosing amounts of nutritious food that meet your energy needs; enjoy a wide variety of foods from the five groups every day, and drink plenty of water; limit foods high in saturated fat, added salt, added sugars and alcohol; encourage, support and promote breastfeeding; and prepare and store food safely.
Together they shift the focus from any single nutrient to an overall pattern of eating — variety across the five groups, with discretionary foods kept to the edges.
Australia and New Zealand measure food energy in kilojoules (kJ), so packaged-food labels show kJ rather than Calories. The reference average-adult daily intake used for the percentage Daily Intake on labels is 8,700 kJ — roughly 2,080 Calories, since 1 Calorie equals 4.184 kJ.
That 8,700 kJ figure is an average for labelling, not a personal target. Your own needs depend on your age, sex, body size and activity. The calculator on this site estimates your energy and lets you read it in kilojoules or Calories, then shows the AGHE plate and the NHMRC's recommended daily serves.
Yes — the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines and the AGHE plate remain the current, in-force guidance from the NHMRC as of 2026, even though a review has been underway. Because the NHMRC publishes recommended serves by age and sex rather than a personalised tool, the free calculator here fills that gap: enter your details, get an energy estimate in kJ or Calories, and see how the five-group plate and reference serves apply to you. It's an independent tool, not affiliated with the NHMRC or the Australian Government.