Australians urged to double daily rate of exercise

Confirming that "Australia is facing an obesity epidemic", new dietary guidance from the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), Australia's peak medical body, advises that people should exercise for up to one hour a day, up from 30 minutes, because of their higher consumption of calories.

Issueing new official dietary guidelines, updated for the first time in 10 years, NHMRC Chief Executive Professor Warwick Anderson explained "to achieve and maintain a healthy weight, Australians need to balance physical activity with amounts of nutritious foods and drinks that meet energy needs. We all need to limit energy rich nutrient poor 'junk foods' that are high in saturated fat, added salt or sugar."

Stating that "Australia is facing an obesity epidemic", the NHMRC points to scientific evidence that suggest that one of the contributing issues to the rise in obesity is the replacement of healthy, nutritious food with energy dense food with minimal nutritional value in Australian dietary patterns.

Health professionals working with people trying to achieve a healthy diet now have access to updated scientific evidence about the best dietary patterns for Australians of all ages.

Linked to the dietary guidelines is advice that at least 60-90 minutes of activity a day are required to prevent weight gain in previously obese people.

More than 55,000 pieces of new scientific research were reviewed to improve the guidelines and they were altered after a public consultation.

As a result of that consultation the guidelines have been changed to explain the importance of replacing saturated fats such as butter and animal fat with poly and mono unsaturated fats such as olive oil and margarine which can reduce levels of bad cholesterol.

According to the guidelines men in Australia are eating too much red meat and need to cut back, while teenage girls need to increase their consumption of red meat.

The guidelines have been developed to help health professionals give advice to the public about their dietary choices and their health.

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