Five serves are ideal. Use a diary to record how many serves you are having each day. If five feels like a lot, you can build up to it. Start by adding an extra ½ cup of green or orange colour vegetables to your main meals.

Discover ways to increase your vegetable intake.

Wholegrain foods like multigrain bread and wholemeal pasta are healthier than white or refined grain foods like white bread. An easy way to think of this is to choose brown and grainy rather than white versions of these foods.

Find out more about choosing healthier grain foods.

Choose chicken with the skin off and remove any excess fat.

Trim fat off cuts of meat including beef, lamb, mutton, veal, pork, venison, rabbit, emu, kangaroo, buffalo and goat.

Keep the amount to around the size of your palm (when it’s cooked).

Find out more about choosing healthier protein foods.

A serve of fish is 100–150 g. For fillets, a serve is about the size of your whole hand or one small tin.

Ways to add fish to your diet:

• Add canned tuna to a mixed salad for a quick, healthy lunch or to one cup of cooked penne pasta and your favourite veggies for a quick supper or pasta salad.
• Mash sardines in a bowl with a little vinegar, and serve on toast with sliced tomato and cracked pepper.

Find healthy fish recipes.

Legumes can be dried or tinned, and they include products like baked beans, lentils, chickpeas and 4 bean mix. Tinned varieties are quick and easy and save on the preparation time.  Make sure you go for no added salt varieties, or rinse and drain them before adding to dishes. Try to include legumes in at least two meals a week. A serve of beans, peas or lentils is one cup.

Get healthy legume recipes.

Worried about whether you should be eating eggs? They're really nutritious and it's fine to have them regularly as part of a healthy diet.

Most people, including those with high cholesterol, can eat up to 6 eggs per week (or around 1 per day) as part of a healthy eating pattern. Speak to your dietitian or doctor if you’re concerned about how your diet may be affecting your cholesterol levels.

Learn more about eggs and heart health.

Everyday dairy foods include milk, cheese and yoghurt. Alternatives to dairy are foods made from soy, rice, cereal or nuts for example, with at least 100 mg added calcium per 100 g.

We recommend:

• Replacing full fat dairy products with reduced fat ones to reduce the total amount of saturated fat you eat.
• Choosing unflavoured dairy products to reduce the total amount of saturated fat and added sugar you eat.
• Avoiding dairy foods like ice-cream, cream and butter.

Include these dairy foods every day as part of a healthy eating pattern.

Read more about how much dairy food to eat.

Use healthier oils like olive and canola, and margarine spreads made from them, instead of butter when you cook. Most recipes still work well if you do, and it’s a much healthier way to cook.

You’ve probably seen claims about coconut oil being a healthy food, and perhaps even a ‘superfood’. Research shows it’s not as good as other plant oils like olive and canola oil.

Swap from butter to healthier spreads on your toast and sandwiches, such as avocado, nut butter and tahini. This could remove a huge 3 kg of saturated fat from your diet in 1 year!

If you don’t like margarine, use nut butters, avocado or tahini as a spread instead.

Read more about healthy and unhealthy fats.

Using healthier oils on vegetables and salads to make greens tastier.

Heathier choices are salad dressings and mayonnaise made from oils such as canola, sunflower, soybean, olive, sesame and peanut oils. Choose varieties of pre-made salad dressings and mayonnaises with less salt and sugar.

Make your own healthy salad dressing by mixing olive oil with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice in a small bowl, and drizzling over your salad or vegetables.

Discover foods with healthy fats.  

Plan to have healthy snacks on hand.

Serve fruit for morning and afternoon tea, or try carrot or cucumber sticks.

Nuts make a great snack. Choose plain, unsalted, unroasted varieties.

There’s a huge range of nuts and seeds to choose from. Examples include:

• almonds, cashews, peanuts, brazil nuts, walnuts
• pine nuts
• sesame seeds
• pumpkin seeds (pepitas), sunflower seeds
• linseed (flax seed) and chia seeds.

Processed meats are higher in salt and saturated fat than lean, unprocessed products. These foods should be chosen only occasionally and eaten in small amounts.

Eat a variety of healthy protein foods regularly – including lean meat and poultry, eggs, nuts, tofu, legumes and fish.

Read more about better meat choices.

Plan your main meals for the week, rather than trying to come up with an idea after a long day. Plan your main meal around the vegetables, and aim for a variety of foods over the week. For example, if you have pasta one night, eat brown rice with fish, couscous with chicken, or steak with vegetables another night.

Discover our tips on how to make a healthier meal.

Next time you reach for one of these foods, why not swap it for a healthier snack such as plain unsalted nuts, fruit or reduced fat milk, cheese or yoghurt to tide you through to your next meal.

Discover our healthy meal and snack ideas. 

Plain tap water is the best drink choice. It's cheap, quenches your thirst and has no kilojoules.

In addition to water, it’s fine to have these drinks in moderation:

• plain mineral or soda water
• reduced unflavoured fat milk
• herbal tea
• tea or coffee (regular or decaffeinated) with reduced fat milk.

It's also OK to have a small glass (125 ml) of 98% fruit or vegetable juice sometimes. Try adding sparkling or still water to make the drink last longer.

Learn more about healthy drinks.

A health professional can give you personalised advice and information.

A dietitian is trained to provide advice on healthy foods and meals, and can help you navigate changes you may need to make to your eating patterns.

The support of a health professional, including an Accredited Practising Dietitian, may help you make and sustain these changes.

Find an Accredited Practising Dietitian near you.