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.
