Australia's five food groups explained: vegetables and legumes, grain foods, fruit, dairy and alternatives, and lean meats and alternatives — plus healthy oils, water, and the discretionary foods kept off the plate.
The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating sorts everyday foods into five groups, with water as the drink of choice and small amounts of healthy oils included. Knowing what goes in each group — and how big a share it takes on the plate — is the basis for balanced, everyday Australian eating.
Vegetables and legumes/beans take the largest share of the plate. They bring fibre, vitamins, minerals and water for very few kilojoules, and the guidelines recommend plenty every day across all colours and types — leafy greens, brassicas, root vegetables, and legumes like chickpeas, lentils and kidney beans.
Grain (cereal) foods take the next-largest share, and the guidelines steer you toward wholegrain and high-cereal-fibre choices: wholegrain bread, brown rice, oats, wholemeal pasta, quinoa and barley. Together, vegetables and grains form the everyday foundation of the Australian plate.
Fruit is its own group — whole fruit is preferred over juice for the fibre. Milk, yoghurt, cheese and alternatives form the dairy group, with mostly reduced-fat options recommended and calcium-fortified plant alternatives (such as soy) included for those who don't consume dairy.
The fifth group is lean meats and poultry, fish, eggs, tofu, nuts and seeds, and legumes/beans. Legumes appear here as well as in the vegetable group, because they count both as a fibre-rich vegetable and as a plant protein alternative to meat — useful for vegetarians and anyone eating more plants.
Small amounts of healthy unsaturated oils and spreads — olive, canola and sunflower oils and spreads made from them — are part of a healthy diet, shown alongside the five groups rather than as one of them. Water is the recommended drink.
Everything else — biscuits, cakes, pastries, chips, processed and fatty meats, confectionery, sugary drinks and alcohol — falls under 'discretionary foods.' They sit outside the five food groups and the guidelines say to eat them only sometimes and in small amounts.