According to the Nutrition Monitoring Survey Series 2012, many adults are not eating enough healthy food and the key findings showed:
- only 63% are eating two or more serves of fruit daily
- nearly half (48%) ate one or two serves of vegetables
- 28% of adults ate fast food meals once or twice a week
- 57% said that they already ate enough cereal foods and only 9.2% said they were trying to eat more.
The survey also showed that adults have not tried to improve their diet over the last year, with:
- 60% made no attempt and only 37% tried to increase their fruit intake
- 67% made no attempt and only 33% tried to increase their vegetable intake
- 67% made no attempt and only 12% tried to increase their cereal foods intake.
Children are also missing out on healthy food and within the 2 to 15 years age group:
- 68% are eating 2 or more serves of fruit daily
- 36% ate 2 serves and 24% ate only 1 serve of vegetables daily.
Cost of healthy food in Western Australia
The average cost of a WA Healthy Food Access Basket in 2013 was $581.27. Many Western Australian families cannot afford a healthy diet and suffer food stress, needing to spend over 25% of their disposable income to eat a healthy diet, particularly welfare recipients and those on a low income.
In 2014, an estimated 66,180 people reported not being able to afford to buy food within the previous twelve months, the majority of these people were in the 16 to 44 years age group.