Albury nutrition consultant Dr Anita Star said fad diets were the main reasons for misconceptions.

“I’m not surprised with the results, it’s consistent with what I find,” she said.

“There is so much advice out there and a lot of conflicting advice, particularly with fad diets and what constitutes as healthy.”

The Medibank commissioned survey discovered three out of 10 people found information about healthy food confusing.

It also found 19 per cent of people wanted to change their diet but did not know how, while 41 per cent did.

Dr Star said it was known most people in Australia were not eating enough fruit and vegetables and there should be more of a focus on high fibre foods like grain breads and cereal.

“That is the standard advice that helps people, and something they can do a bit better at,” she said.

But she said a healthy diet could mean different things to different people.

“What is healthy for someone with a heart disease could be different for someone with cancer or a kid that is active or growing,” she said.

People are becoming more health conscious on the Border, according to Paleo Cafe owner Ryan Hastie, who said they had up to a thousand customers a week.

He said most people were interested in remo- ving sugar from their diets.

“People are also getting less scared of fats,” he said.

“People are understanding more and more about where food is coming from and caring about the process of their food.”

Mr Hastie believed the paleo diet, which had risen in popularity recently, would be around for the long term.

“I just don’t know if it will be called paleo,” he said.

“It’s just about eating natural foods, and that will be massive in 10 years.

“The next diet will be a variation of the natural eating diet.”

Healthy Together Wod-onga team leader Claire Taylor said the Australian Dietary guidelines recommended people eat five serves of vegetables and two serves of fruit a day, but people were often confused by what a serve looked like.

“A serve of vegetables, for instance, is half a cup of cooked vegies, one small potato or one cup of salad,” she said.

“I think it is important to keep it simple, we should be eating more fresh fruit and vegetables more often, get back to whole, fresh foods and cut the consumption of sugary drinks.”

Ms Taylor said research showed only 14 per cent of people in Wodonga ate enough vegetables.

A group enjoying lunch at Albury’s Get Tossed yesterday understood what a healthy diet meant.

Jessica Strauss had this advice: “Don’t eat anything your nan didn’t make because you know it wouldn’t be processed.”