DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines - Eat For Health

2.2.6.1 Pregnant and breastfeeding women
Fruit and vegetable consumption before and during pregnancy makes an important contribution to
health outcomes for women and their children. Many women may need to increase their current
consumption of these valuable foods as a prospective cohort study found that only about half of
pregnant women may be consuming the recommended amounts of fruits and vegetables [219].
Pre-prepared or pre-packaged cut fruit and vegetables should be avoided due to risk of listeriosis
[130, 220].
2.2.6.2 Infants
Pureed and mashed vegetables, including legumes/beans, and fruit are important in the diets of
infants from around six months of age. Choices should be varied to ensure adequate energy
(kilojoule) and nutrient intake.
By 12 months of age, infants should be consuming a wide variety of foods consumed by the rest of
the family, having progressed from pureed or mashed foods to foods that are chopped into small
pieces. Care should be taken early on to choose foods of a suitable texture. Hard pieces of foods,
such as some raw vegetables and nuts, should be avoided as they can cause choking. A variety of
tastes and textures may be more appealing. As with all foods, some vegetables may need to be
introduced more than 10 times before being accepted [221]. Whole fruit is preferable to fruit
juice due to its higher fibre content. Fruit juice is not suitable for infants under six months and like
any acidic drink, consumption requires care to avoid dental erosion [133, 222].
2.2.6.3 Children and adolescents
The recommended quantities of vegetables and fruit intakes for children and adolescents vary
depending on their age and sex [10]. To meet the dietary recommendations, children and
adolescents need to approximately double their overall vegetable consumption [10] and decrease
by one third their intake of potatoes. Current fruit intakes by 2-3 year olds are close to the
recommended levels but need to increase proportionately with age.
A wide variety of different coloured, textured and tasting vegetables and fruit, both fresh and
cooked, should be offered frequently to toddlers and pre-schoolers. Parents and carers can
provide model behaviour by consuming a wide range of vegetables and fruit.
Children and adolescents should be encouraged to select a wide variety of vegetables and fruit, at
meal times and between meals. In recent years, most Australian states have improved the
nutritional quality of food supplied at schools through strategies incorporating a colour-coded
system in which vegetables, including legumes/beans, and fruit are classified ‘green’ with the
recommendation that children eat plenty [223-230]. Fruit can be ‘fast food’ to help satisfy
DRAFT Australian Dietary Guidelines- December 2011 44