Take the “15” Challenge!
By Gaye Rutherford, Dietitian

Regularly being asked to counsel and provide dietary motivation for overweight patients I am always on the lookout for good ideas to incorporate into my practise. Therefore last time I was killing time at the airport waiting for a flight back to Tassie, I picked up a copy of Dr John Tickell’s best-selling book, “The Great Australian Diet, the Healthy Alternative”. If you are ever fortunate enough to hear Dr Tickell speak, jump at the chance, as he is an extremely entertaining and motivating speaker! The book is an excellent read, and one of the concepts that particularly appealed to me was his “Amazing Rule of 15”. Basically, the Rule of 15 asks us to aim to eat 15 different Plant Foods every day – where plant foods are vegetables, fruits, nuts, grains and seeds. You don’t need to eat great amounts of each food – just a small portion is ample. He encourages us to “make it a game and at least get close to the 15”, aiming to have as many different varieties and different colours as possible.

Take 2 minutes now and pick up a pen and write down all the different plant foods you have eaten in the last 24 hours. How many are on the list? Is it close to 15? Have a look at each of your meals – are any meals letting you down? If you skipped breakfast, that will let you down big time, or if breakfast was an egg & bacon McMuffin, well no plant food points in that one. But if breakfast was a bowl of cereal with some chopped fruit on top (eg banana, kiwi fruit, maybe even some cut up nuts & seeds) well that could be already 3 or 4 points racked up. What about lunch? A meat pie, no points for that either. But a sandwich made with wholegrain bread, lettuce, tomato, grated carrot and beetroot and some avocado along with some lean meat gives a whopping 6 points (grainy bread + 5 salad foods)! Then if tea includes 3 or 4 different vegetables, and you snack on a piece of fruit and handful of nuts at some point during the day – you’ve met the 15 challenge easily! Why not challenge yourself to keeping a list for a few days and seeing how you go. Better still, make it a family challenge – pin your lists up on the fridge and see how everyone goes. Winner gets the week off doing the dishes?

Why do I love this rule? Rather than focusing on “bad” foods, eating less, cutting back, “guilty” choices and negative messages like these, the focus is on eating more, going for variety, incorporating more colour and making positive choices. For me it gives me a sense of focussing my efforts on positive rewarding choices, rather than making me feel deprived by forever focussing on lists of foods I shouldn’t have. Why not give it a go and let me know whether it works for you.


Gaye Rutherford
Accredited Practising Dietitian
Fairbrother Health & Communications Manager