Diet

Fruit and vegetables

The foods and drinks we consume (our diet) play an important role in our overall health and wellbeing. A balanced diet, including sufficient fruit and vegetables, reduces a person’s risk of developing conditions such as heart disease and type 2 diabetes. The 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines recommend, for males, consuming a minimum of 2 serves of fruit and 5 to 6 serves vegetables each day, depending on age, to ensure good nutrition and health.

Less than 1 in 30

Australian men are meeting fruit and vegetable intake guidelines

 According to 2017–18 data (ABS 2019a):

  • around half (47%) of men aged 18 and over met the fruit intake guideline
  • 1 in 25 (4.1%) met the vegetable intake guideline
  • less than 1 in 30 (3.0%) met both (Figure 3).

Figure 3: Proportion of men aged 18 and over meeting fruit intake guideline, vegetable intake guideline and both guidelines, 2017–18

These 3 pie charts show that 47%25 of men met the fruit intake guideline, 4.1%25 of men met the vegetable intake guideline, and 3%25 of men met both the fruit and vegetable intake guidelines.

Chart: AIHW. Source: ABS 2019a (see Table S2 for footnotes).

The proportion of men meeting both fruit and vegetable intake guidelines varied by age group. For example, men aged 75–84 were 9 times as likely to meet both guidelines as men aged 25–34 (10% and 1.1%, respectively) (Figure 4).

Figure 4: Proportion of men aged 18 and over who met the 2013 Australian dietary guidelines for fruit and vegetable consumption, by age group (years), 2017–18

This column chart shows the proportion of men meeting the fruit and vegetable intake guidelines generally increases for each age group after 25–34. The proportion meeting the fruit intake guideline ranges from 40%25 of men aged 25–34 to 65%25 of men aged 85 and over. The proportion meeting vegetable intake guideline ranges from 2.5%25 of men aged 18–24 to 12%25 of men aged 75–84. The proportion meeting both intake guidelines ranges from 1.1%25 of men aged 25–34 to 10%25 of men aged 75–84.

Chart: AIHW. Source: ABS 2019a (see Table S2 for footnotes).

Whether men ate enough fruit and vegetables varied for some population groups. After adjusting for age (ABS 2019a):

  • men living in the highest socioeconomic areas were 1.2 times as likely to be eating enough fruit as men in the lowest areas (51% and 43%, respectively)
  • the proportion of men eating enough vegetables was low (around 4%) across all remoteness areas
  • the proportion of men eating enough vegetables was low across all socioeconomic areas (between 3% and 5%).

Sugar sweetened and diet drinks

Discretionary foods like sugar sweetened and diet drinks are not an essential part of a healthy diet and a limited intake of these is recommended in the Australian Dietary Guidelines. Having too much of these drinks too often may lead to adverse health outcomes.

According to 2017–18 data (ABS 2019a):

  • 1 in 3 (33%) Australian men drank sugar sweetened drinks at least once a week, and around 1 in 8 (12%) did so daily
  • 1 in 7 men drank diet drinks at least once a week (14%), and around 1 in 20 did so daily (5.5%) (Figure 5).

Figure 5: Proportion of men aged 18 and over who consumed sugar sweetened or diet drinks daily, weekly or never, 2017–18

These 2 pie charts show the proportion of men drinking sugar sweetened drinks daily, weekly or never was 12%25, 33%25 and 56%25, respectively, and the proportion of men drinking diet drinks daily, weekly or never was 5.5%25, 14%25 and 81%25, respectively.

Notes:

  1. Sugar sweetened drinks includes soft drink, cordials, sports drinks or caffeinated energy drinks and may include soft drinks in ready to drink alcoholic beverages. Fruit juice, flavoured milk, ‘sugar free’ drinks or coffee/hot tea are excluded.
  2. Totals may not add to 100% due to rounding.

Chart: AIHW. Source: ABS 2019a (see Table S3 for footnotes)

The proportion of men who consumed sugar sweetened or diet drinks daily varied by age group. For example, men aged 18–24 were almost 3 times as likely as men aged 65–74 to consume sugar sweetened drinks daily (17% and 5.8%, respectively).

Consumption also varied for some population groups. After adjusting for age (ABS 2019a):

  • men living in Outer regional and remote areas were almost twice as likely to drink sugar sweetened drinks daily compared with men in Major cities (18% compared with 11%)
  • men living in the lowest socioeconomic areas were almost 3 times as likely to drink sugar sweetened drinks daily as men in the highest socioeconomic areas (17% and 6.1%, respectively) (Figure 6).

Figure 6: Proportion of men aged 18 and over consuming sugar sweetened drinks daily, by socioeconomic area, 2017–18

This column chart shows the proportion of men who drink sugar sweetened drinks daily increases with decreasing socioeconomic area with the highest proportion of men who drink sugar sweetened drinks daily in the lowest socioeconomic area (17%25) and the lowest proportion in the highest socioeconomic area (6.1%25).

Note: Sugar sweetened drinks includes soft drink, cordials, sports drinks or caffeinated energy drinks and may include soft drinks in ready to drink alcoholic beverages. Fruit juice, flavoured milk, ‘sugar free’ drinks or coffee/hot tea are excluded.
Chart: AIHW. Source: ABS 2019a (see Table S3 for footnotes).

For more information on diet as risk factor for poor health, see Poor diet.

Dietary supplements

Dietary supplements are products defined as Complementary Medicines under the Therapeutic Goods Regulations 1990. They include products containing ingredients that are nutrients, such as multivitamin or fish oil products (ABS 2019b).

Based on 2017–18 data from the ABS NHS, around 1 in 3 (32%) men aged 18 and over were estimated to have taken dietary supplements in the last 2 weeks. Supplement use was more common in older age groups. Around 2 in 5 (41%) men aged 65–74 used supplements compared with 1 in 4 men aged 18–24 (25%).

Dietary supplement use varied for some population groups. After adjusting for age (ABS 2019a):

  • men living in Major cities areas were 1.3 times as likely to be taking dietary supplements as men in Outer Regional and remote areas (34% and 26%, respectively)
  • men living in the highest socioeconomic areas were 1.4 times as likely to be taking dietary supplements as men in the lowest socioeconomic areas (36% and 26%, respectively).