Australia Must Find the Courage to Rethink Its Plate

There are moments when societal change gently taps us on the shoulder. And then there are moments when it furiously knocks our door down. The global rethink of dietary advice is one of those louder moments and Australia should not pretend it cannot hear it.

For decades, Australian dietary guidelines have been built on a familiar altar: low fat, high carbohydrate including plenty of grains, and a quiet tolerance for sugar that would astonish our grandparents. It was well-intended but inappropriate for far too many people. Traditional eating enjoyed by our grandparents had been thrown away for a new age of food pyramids encouraging most of our substance to be sourced from easy to store and commodify carbohydrate-based foods.

This is not an abstract debate for me. Years ago, as my father slipped into the fog of dementia, I desperately researched what I could on how I could support him. I was surprised to learn about emerging research linking high sugar intake, insulin resistance, type II diabetes, and cognitive decline. What I read made my stomach drop. It suggested that the very dietary advice meant to keep him “healthy” may have been quietly accelerating his decline.

Trying to shift his diet felt like swimming against a bureaucratic tide. Sugar was everywhere and in everything. Carbohydrates were considered benign – in fact one of the ‘good guys.' Fat was still treated like a villain from an old morality play. I fought, as many families do, not just the illness, but the assumptions surrounding it.

That is why the treatment of Dr Gary Fettke still troubles me deeply. Here was a doctor watching patients lose limbs - amputations driven by diabetes and metabolic disease - and daring to ask a heretical question: what if sugar, not fat, was the real culprit? What if food mattered more than pharmaceuticals?

For that question, he was put through a bureaucratic wringer that would deter many from ever speaking up again. Today, much of what Dr Fettke championed is no longer fringe as it is supported by serious science.

The evidence has been building methodically. CSIRO research has challenged the standard, demonstrating the metabolic benefits of reducing refined carbohydrates and sugar while prioritising protein and healthy fats. Large-scale UK studies involving tens of thousands of participants now show that diet has a greater impact on weight and long-term health than exercise alone -a sobering truth in a culture that prefers gym memberships to uncomfortable conversations about sugar.

And now, internationally, the dam wall is cracking. America is shifting their focus away from blanket low-fat advice and toward metabolic health, sugar reduction, and adequate protein. This is not recklessness - it is course correction.

Australia prides itself on being pragmatic. We like evidence. We value fairness. Yet when it comes to diet, we have clung to outdated guidelines with the stubbornness of a rusted hinge. Meanwhile, rates of obesity, diabetes, fatty liver disease, and dementia continue to rise. The human cost is written in hospital wards, amputations, aged-care facilities, and kitchen tables where families quietly worry.

Updating our dietary guidelines is not about chasing fads. It is about intellectual honesty. It is about acknowledging that one-size-fits-all advice has failed too many people. It is about giving doctors, patients, and families the freedom to choose food that heals rather than harms.

My father deserved better. So did Dr Fettke’s patients. So do Australian families now.

The plate, like policy, must evolve with knowledge. And sometimes, the bravest thing a nation can do is admit it’s time to change the recipe.