The Healthy Eating Pyramid
- Australia's Most Successful Food Selection Model 

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Food Selection Guides - your choice
The Healthy Eating pyramid has been the trade mark of The Australian Nutrition Foundation Inc for 20 years and is suggested in the 'A' of the current Nutrition Australia logo. The concept was first developed in Sweden in the 1970s and given impetus in Australia by the Australian Nutrition Foundation Inc. reflecting developments in nutrition science and educational preferences. There is a range of food selection guides available. As a general rule they provide the same or similar advice. They do not contradict each other - some provide more details than others and the presentation differs. This provides choices for the wide range of people that we have in our community.

The unrivalled success of the Healthy Eating Pyramid as an educational tool over the last 20 years has been in its simplicity and it continues to be in great demand by publishes, educators, health workers and the general public.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid has been designed as a simple, conceptual model for people to use as a first step to adequate nutrition. It does not pretend to address the complexities of our food supply. It represents basic foods only, so facilitating individual food choices in the ways that these foods can be mixed to create flavours and textures that please our diverse population.

Making Choices
It is important for individuals to choose a food selection guide that they find easy to comprehend and use and one that is appropriate for their needs, their likes and dislikes, their culture and the foods available to them.

We have choices in most elements of health management. To suggest that a whole population should be restricted to one food selection guide is contradictory to all teachings of food choice. It is also contradictory to the messages that nutrition educators should be promoting - there is no one ‘diet’ that is perfect for everyone , and we are able to achieve adequate nutrition through many pathways available to us in Australia as we select from our abundant food supply.

 The Healthy Eating Pyramid is a three dimensional, stable, strong structure used as a model for qualitative, not quantitative, food choices. It groups foods together according to their energy content and according to the various nutrients that they can provide. The Pyramid encourages variety, minimum fat, adequate fibre, limited salt and adequate water.

The features of the Pyramid
The coloured version of the healthy Eating Pyramid is bright and eyecatching. Plant derived foods are together in the Eat Most group at the base, animal derived foods in the Eat Moderately group in the centre with fats and sugar in the Eat in Small Amounts group at the top. The symbol for water is included with a tick and salt is depicted with a cross. 

The separation of foods into the three layers is educationally useful and reflects current developments in scientific information as the role of phytochemicals in the human diet becomes clearer, as the role of small amounts of low-fat animal derived food in adding nutrient density is appreciated, and as pressure for environmental sustainability grows and affects food choice. 

The Pyramid is accompanied by Nutrition Australia's key message "Optimal health through food variety and physical activity". This is an unequivical representation of the links between energy expenditure, movement, food intake and health.

The Healthy Eating Pyramid which is copyright The Australian Nutrition Foundation Inc. is available in poster form (roled in a cylinder to post) or as the Nutrition Time edition with notes, quiz and a game, that can be posted flat. Details of cost and dimensions are in our publications section of the web site. For permission to use click here.

It is possible, of course, to reproduce the Healthy Eating Pyramid, with permission, as a black and white version or a version without drawings of food.

Also available is the Healthy Eating Pyramid for Lacto Ovo Vegetarians. In this version the Eat Most section has been increased in size by 25%, and foods are sectioned in the same way as for non-vegetarians with meat omitted.

Click here for more information about the HEP.

Nola Caffin
National Chair
Nutrition Australia

Ruth Riddell
National Publications Manager

Last updated 01/07/2003 .