Australia's food pyramid takes healthier shape

Australia's guide to healthy eating has been updated for the first time in 15 years, reflecting new research to combat fad diets and maintain healthy eating, local media reported Tuesday.

Nutrition Australia spokeswomen Lucinda Hancock said the updated pyramid encourages a varied and balanced eating habits, diverting attention from social media and fad diets such as the " paleo diet" that eliminates two core food groups. "People tend to trust people who they see as celebrities or their families and friends," Hancock told Fairfax Media.

Based on Australian dietary guidelines, the food pyramid has been a tool reinforcing sensible, healthy eating for more than 30 years.

Divided into five categories, vegetables move to the bottom of the pyramid, signaling a need to eat these most, with less emphasis on carbohydrates, saturated fats, sugar and salt.

Quinoa and soba noodles are now in the grains group and soy milk in the dairy section as a calcium-fortified alternative to cow's milk.

Hancock said if Australians ate to the pyramid, 70 percent of their diet would consist of fruit, vegetables and grains, instead of fast food that contributes more than one-third to an average Australians daily energy intake. "That is contributing to the problem of obesity and all those lifestyle diseases," Hancock said. Endi