The Healthy Eating Pyramid is Nutrition Australia's model (2015); Australia's official guide is the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating plate (NHMRC). How the pyramid and plate relate, and whether the food pyramid is still used in Australia.
Many people still picture a 'food pyramid' when they think of Australian healthy eating. Australia's official guide is actually the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating plate (NHMRC). The Healthy Eating Pyramid is a separate, complementary model from Nutrition Australia — an independent non-government organisation. Here's how the two relate, and what the current pyramid actually shows.
The short answer: the official government guide is a plate, not a pyramid. The Australian Guide to Healthy Eating, published by the NHMRC alongside the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines, shows the five food groups as proportions of a circular plate. That is the authoritative guide for Australian nutrition.
The Healthy Eating Pyramid hasn't disappeared, though. Nutrition Australia — a respected independent, non-government, non-profit body — maintains it as an educational model. So the pyramid is still used as a teaching tool, and it aligns with the dietary guidelines, but it is not the official government guide. That distinction is the source of most of the confusion.
Nutrition Australia last updated the Healthy Eating Pyramid in 2015. From the largest base upward it shows: vegetables, legumes and fruit; then grains; then milk, yoghurt, cheese and alternatives together with lean meat, poultry, fish, eggs, nuts and legumes; and a small top layer of healthy fats (oils).
Around the pyramid sit three extra messages that the plate communicates separately: enjoy herbs and spices (for flavour without salt), choose water, and limit salt and added sugar. The 2015 version replaced the older three-tier 'eat most / eat moderately / eat in small amounts' pyramid that many Australians remember from school.
The Healthy Eating Pyramid and the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating tell the same story in two shapes. Both put vegetables, legumes and fruit at the foundation, treat grains as a major everyday food, group dairy with the protein foods, keep healthy fats small, and steer you toward water while limiting salt, added sugar and discretionary foods.
If you grew up with the pyramid, the plate is the same advice re-drawn as proportions of a meal. Use whichever picture helps — just remember the official, government-published guide is the plate, and the calculator and food-group pages on this site are built around it.