About Our Partners

The Commonwealth Science and Industry Research Organisation (CSIRO) is Australia's government research organisation. Our mission is to create measurable economic, environmental and social benefits that better our world.

Since its establishment in 1916, the CSIRO has been involved in research across a number of fields, including agriculture, health and biosecurity, energy, land and water management, manufacturing, mineral resources, ocean and atmosphere research, and of course food and nutrition.

Among the CSIRO's long list of achievements you'll find many household innovations like wifi (which you may be using right now), extended wear contact lenses, Aerogard and the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet.

The Glycemic Index Foundation

The Glycemic Index Foundation (GIF) is a not-for-profit health promotion charity committed to providing the community with information and tools to help improve their health through scientifically-backed low GI healthy eating principles.

GIF works to promote community awareness and understanding of the Glycemic Index and the benefits of lowering the average GI of their diet to facilitate the management of diabetes, prevent weight gain and other chronic lifestyle-related diseases.

The glycemic index is incorporated into the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet through the menu plans and the online tracker.

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet

The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet was launched in book form in 2005 as a science-based, practical and healthy eating guide. The diet was based on studies by the CSIRO which showed that a higher protein, low fat diet facilitates sustainable weight loss.

In 2015 the CSIRO partnered with Digital Wellness, an Australian online health business, and the GIF to create the online version of the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet.

Innovations

The partnership has produced a number of innovations, including: 

• Protein Balance - an improvement on the original diet which distributes protein more evenly across all meals.
• CSIRO Healthy Diet Score - a study with more than 200,000 participants that scored their diet quality on a scale from 1 to 100 (average score was 59).
• CSIRO Diet Types - a study with more than 150,000 participants that looked at the influence of behaviour on diet choices.
• The CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet iOS member app
• The Premium Program - an online dietitian service that put members in contact with an Accredited Practicing Dietitian (not available outside Australia/New Zealand). 
• A special program for people with prediabetes or Type 2 diabetes (not available outside Australia/New Zealand). 

For a full list of our reports and publications please click here.