Australian Dietary Guidelines

Unlike many fad diets, the 5:2 diet doesn’t require excluding foods from any of the five food groups in the Australian Guide to Healthy Eating tool. These allowing individuals to maintain a nutritious, healthy and balanced diet. The access to various recipe plans made for the 5:2 diet, assist in both nutritious and calorie-counted meals which potentially address recommendations of the Australian Dietary Guidelines.

Guideline 1 is achieved with maintaining a healthy weight by reducing calorie intake which can result in weight loss (eatforhealth, 2015). However, fasting days may cause tiredness and lower energy levels which can result in a lack of physical activity.

Guideline 2 promotes enjoying a variety of nutritious foods from the five food groups every day, including vegetables, fruit, grains, lean meats and poultry, cheese, milk and yoghurt (eatforhealth, 2015). The 5:2 diet allows having the option to choose from any range of the nutritious five food groups daily, as there is no exclusion of consuming any foods, rather it primarily focuses on restricting the total kilojoules consumed on fast days.        

Nutritional Values met?

As the diet restricts to 500-600 kilojoules on fasting days, this can result in consuming lower nutrient amounts than the recommended dietary intake. Although, as normal eating days have no restrictions one may be able to sufficiently achieve the recommended Nutrient Reference Values.