Only two in five Australians are eating enough vegetables, a report by the CSIRO has revealed.
The CSIRO Healthy Diet Score report surveyed more than 235,000 Australian adults over eight years.
It found only 35 per cent of the population is eating enough vegetables and that alcohol, takeaway food, and confectionary dominate diets.
Construction workers had the poorest diets, according to the report, while retirees and those in the fitness industry were the healthiest eaters.
The report looked at nine factors — including quantity, quality and variety of foods eaten — and estimated compliance with the Australian Dietary Guidelines and scored it out of 100.
The closer to 100, the healthier the diet.
Report co-author Gilly Hendrie said those surveyed had only scraped a pass, with an average diet score of 55 out of 100.
“The score is a stark reminder of the work that needs to be done to improve our eating habits and reduce the national waistline.”
The report found at about 28 servings a week, discretionary foods were the lowest-scoring area of diet quality across all age groups and genders, with a score of 20 out of 100.
Alcohol, cakes, biscuits, chocolate, confectionery and takeaway foods were found to be the biggest contributors.
Lauren Ball, professor of Community Health and Wellbeing at the University of Queensland, said the report was unsurprising.
“It is something that we’ve known for a long time, that Australia is so well positioned to eat well, however, that’s not what we see when we look at the evidence in terms of the food that Australians eat at the moment.”
She said buying fresh produce and avoiding processed foods were easy ways to quickly improve diets.
Professor Ball said the old adage that ‘you can’t put a price on your health’ had never been more relevant.
“Increasingly over time, we’re seeing that health is a really true indication of overall prosperity in today’s day and age,” she said.
“Anything we can do to support our own health and wellbeing is becoming increasingly important and this should be at the top of all of our priorities in terms of the way that we can look after ourselves.”
(9 NEWS)
