Nutrient Reference Values and Australian Dietary Guidelines

  

(Australian Government department of Ageing, 2013, p.9)

The Australian Dietary Guidelines (2013) provide advice on the amounts and types of foods that should be consumed for health and wellbeing. They are based on the best available scientific evidence and apply to all healthy Australians, as well as those with common health conditions such as being overweight. (Nutrition Australia, 2013)

The NRVs (nutrient reference values) are a set of recommendations for nutritional intake based on currently available scientific knowledge. (Commonwealth of Australian, 2014)

The Dietary Guidelines and Reference values are not effected by the diet. These values and guidelines should be seen my the dieters so that they are able to follow them when in their 5 days of normal eating.

References

Wright, Dr M. (2014, 24/11). 5:2 Diet. Retrieved from; http://www.patient.co.uk/health/52-diet   

NHS Choices (2013, 14/01). News Analysis: Does the 5:2 Fast Diet work? Retrieved from; http://www.nhs.uk/news/2013/01January/Pages/Does-the-5-2-intermittent-fasting-diet-work.aspx  

Nutrition Australia (2013). Australian Dietary Guidelines 2013. Retrieved from; http://www.nutritionaustralia.org/national/resource/australian-dietary-guidelines-2013

Commonwealth of Australia (2014). Nutrient Reference Values. Retrieved from; https://www.nrv.gov.au/

Australian Government Department of Aging (2013). Australian Dietary Guidelines. Food for Health. Retrieved from; http://www.nhmrc.gov.au/_files_nhmrc/publications/attachments/n31.pdf  p.9 

Recommendations

If the long term effects are cleared and is deemed to be safe for future health, this diet would be highly recommended.
The Fast Diet (5:2) requires you to count the calories you ingest on the 2 days of fasting. This would mean that you'd have to weigh and calculate manually the calories in each item of food, download an app on your smart phone and search for each food via the app or read the packet of packeted food and add up the calories they provide. This would mean a lot of time wasting during the days of fasting due to the calculations being time consuming and possibly confusing some some participants of the diet.
Therefore this diet would not be suitable for a long term diet or a lifestyle to follow. But, for a short term diet (couple of weeks - one month) or a diet to reach your goal weight, this diet would be very beneficial and a great diet to be able to reach your goal weight and improve the health of an individual. This diet could possibly be seen as a diet that can be used like a cleanse, maybe to it for one week per month just to improve health and keep a balanced and healthy weight.

Benefits and disadvantages

'The proposed health effects of the 5:2 diet include weight loss, improvement in life expectancy, protection against certain cancers and protection against dementia. However, the evidence supporting the 5:2 diet is currently limited. More research is needed to look at the long-term risks and benefits.' (Wright, 2014)

According to NHS Choices (2013), some disadvantages to such a radical diet is difficulty sleeping, bad breath (a known problem with low carbohydrate diets), irritability, anxiety, dehydration, daytime sleepiness. This can effect daily activity such as working (especially if a labor worker or active worker) and can also reduce daily extra activity that goes in partner with a balanced diet, as well as effecting social interactions and encounters by effecting personality traits and mood. Also by having poor breath, it can allow assumptions of poor hygiene and decline ongoing social interactions. 

But, even though the long term risks have not yet been confirmed, the benefits of this diet is impressive. We are an aging population so improvement in life expectancy can be beneficial to the aging population as well as the protection against dementia. Because there are so many elderly people, a protection of dementia can be an amazing new technique as this will prevent many lost memories of history, religion and the wise words from people whom have been through what some may be going through and offer life lessons that can then improve the life of another. 
Cancer is another form of disease that we as a country and world population are trying to decrease. If this diet can improve morbidity and mortality against these diseases it may be able to grow into a world wide culture and habit. But still, long term risks need to be discovered and tested. 

Description

'The 5:2 diet means eating 'normally' for five days out of seven and then 'fasting' on the other two days out of seven. During the 'fasting' days, men should consume no more than 600 calories per day and women no more than 500 calories.' (Wright, 2014)

Therefore, for 5 days of the week you consume as you would normally eat (assuming you should be eating a balanced normal diet) and then on the other 2 days of the week still consume you food you desire but make sure that you don't intake more than 600 calories if a male, or 500 calories if a female for the whole day.