Teenagers and young adults in Australia consume more soft drinks, burgers and chips than any other age group according to a report released on May 9, 2014 by the Australian Bureau of Statistics.
In the first detailed information on Australia’s eating habits available in 15 years, director of Health Statistics Louise Gates said the results released today from the Australian Health Survey showed 51% of teenage males (aged 14-18 years) and 44% of young adult males (aged 19-30 years) had consumed soft drink on the day prior to interview.
This is compared to less than 30% for the rest of the population.
“These results show that on a typical day in Australia, one in four teenage males consumes a burger compared with around only one in 14 for the whole population. One in five males in this age range also consumes chips compared with only one in seven across the whole population.”
Australian teenagers found to eat less fruit, vegetables
“The report also recorded that rates of consumption of fruit and vegetables for teenagers and young adults were relatively low.”
Across these age groups, about 40% of males and 50% of females consumed fruit compared with 60% for the whole population.
“While just under 75% of teenagers and young adults consumed vegetables on the day prior to interview, almost half of this consumption was potatoes (including chips) for both teenage males and females,” said Gates.
Australian teenagers found to drink less coffee, be on diet
“However, we did find that teenagers and young adults are not the nation’s biggest coffee drinkers.”
“While nearly one in two Australians overall drank coffee on the day prior to the interview, only one in seven teenagers and one in three young adults consumed the beverage.”
Other results from the survey included that just over 2.3 million Australians aged 15 years and over reported being on a diet to lose weight or for some other health reason.
Being on a diet was most prevalent among 51-70 year olds where 19% of females and 15% of males were on a diet.
Additionally, 3.7 million people reported avoiding a food due to allergy or intolerance.
The most common type of food reported as causing intolerance was cow’s milk followed by gluten.
The Australian Health Survey is based on a 24 hour dietary recall of more than 12,000 Australians.
