Australian Dietary Guidelines - Summary - National Health and ...

guideline 3Limit foods high in added sugars including jams, marmalades, confectionary, syrups andsweetened sauces and dressings, biscuits, cakes, sweet muffins, doughnuts, slices,puddings, sweet pastries, pies and crumbles, ice-cream, chocolate and muesli bars.Particularly limit intake of drinks high in added sugars including sugar sweetened soft drinkscordials, fruit drinks, vitamin waters, energy and sports drinks.Foods and drinks that are artificially sweetened can provide a useful alternative to thosehigh in added sugars. But artificially sweetened soft drinks are still acidic and may erodetooth enamel so only drink them sometimes and in small amounts.Tips to limit added sugarsTrain your tastebuds to rely less on sweetness, by gradually reducing thesugar you add to foods and your intake of foods containing added sugars.How many sugars do you have with your cuppa? Try to cut down graduallyto zero.Keep to a minimum the amount of sugars, honey, sweetened sauces orsyrups added to foods and made at home – or avoid adding sugars at all.Go for fruit instead of biscuits, cakes, muffins, chocolate or lollies. Keep abowl of fruit handy on the bench or cool in the fridge.If you have dessert, share with a friend.Avoid sweetened drinks. Keep a jug of chilled water in the fridge. Addingslices of lemon or mint for variety.Infants should be put to bed without a bottle or the bottle should be takenaway when the infant has finished feeding. Do not let the infant keep suckingon the bottle.For more ideas on how to eat less added sugars go to:www.eatforhealth.gov.auToo saltyMost Australians eat too much salt. Salt can help enhance flavour and preserve some foods.But salt is the main source of sodium in our diet – and too much sodium is not good forour health.Cutting down on sodium reduces blood pressure in adults and children. This is particularlyimportant if blood pressure is already too high. Decreasing intake of sodium may also helpreduce the risk of heart disease and stroke.Most of the sodium we eat comes from the salt added to processed foods.32