Australian children ditching sugar for healthier diets

Source: Xinhua| 2017-12-13 12:03:31|Editor: Lifang
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CANBERRA, Dec. 13 (Xinhua) -- Australia's children are leading the change towards healthier eating habits, the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) revealed on Wednesday, with sugar consumption among Australians aged between 2 and 18 having declined by almost a quarter over the last 17 years.

According to the ABS, the average daily intake of sugars both added to foods and naturally present in sources such as fruit and honey declined by 23 percent for children aged between 2 and 18 years between 1995 and 2012.

According to the ABS's Louise Gates, who is Director of Health at the bureau, the decline can be attributed to a reduction in the consumption of sugary drinks such as soft drinks and cordials.

"Most of the decline of children's free sugar consumption can be accounted for by the reduction in consumption of soft drinks, cordial and fruit juice/drinks," Gates said on Wednesday.

"Beverages are the most common source of free sugars so the reduction in this has made a big difference."

She said that overall, and per 10,000 kilojules (kJ) of energy, the total consumption of sugar in children dropped by almost six teaspoons of sugar from 105 grams to 81 grams per day.

"As a proportion of total daily energy intake, it fell from 17 percent of total energy in 1995 to 13 percent in 2012," she said.

Gates added that while parents "may claim some credit in changing children's habits," the reduction in the proportion of sugar in the average adult's diet only decreased by six percent over the same period.

"Adults themselves had a more modest improvement with a 6-percent reduction in their consumption of free sugars over the period from 11.0 percent in 1995 to 10.4 percent in 2012)," Gates said.

Meanwhile, in further statistics released by the ABS, it was also revealed that Australians were increasingly turning their noses up at vegetables, with older Australians being the biggest culprits.

"Average consumption of the vegetables and legumes/beans fell by 10 percent, with decreased consumption by teenage and adults age groups of both sexes," Gates said.

"Although adults aged 51 years and over still consumed more serves of vegetables than younger people, those older adults had the biggest drop in consumption.

"For example, average daily vegetable intake for 51 to 70-year-olds fell by around one-fifth (5.1 to 4.1 serves per 10,000 kJ) and for people aged 71 years and over their consumption fell by one quarter (5.5 to 4.2 serves per 10,000 kJ)."

Gates said that, instead, Australians were turning to poultry as high-protein diets continue to come into vogue. According to the bureau, the average daily consumption of poultry rose by 82 percent between 1995 and 2012.

She added that Australia's diets were continuing to improve overall, despite the fall in consumption of vegetables.

"Fruit consumption is increasingly being made up of whole fruit rather than juice and the average daily consumption of 'discretionary' foods declined from 6.6 to 6.1 serves per 10,000 kJ largely thanks to a reduction in sugary drinks, fries and pastry products," Gates said.

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