What are the dietary guides and how do they help us?

It is very important that you are food guides take into account the eating habits, uses and customs of the target population, to be better accepted and thus be able to establish healthy eating habits that improve health.

Public health policies use dietary guidelines for prevention and management of chronic diseasess and community health promotion strategies. To achieve these purposes, dietary guidelines should reinforce appropriate eating habits and practices, promote the modification of those that are inappropriate, and encourage the incorporation of new foods and correct practices.

Why were food guides born?

In 1992 the International Conference on Nutrition (ICN), organized by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) in Rome, incorporated noncommunicable diseases for the first time (ENT) as a major global public health problem, recognizing that they were strongly associated with eating behaviors and physical activity, among others.

And governments were recommended to develop, implement and evaluate their own Food Based Dietary Guidelines according to their main public health problems, with relevant messages for people of different ages, cultures and lifestyles. That is why there are hundreds of dietary guides, as each country has its own.

, brings together a list with guides from more than one hundred countries in the world, where you can see the similarities and differences of each of them. The representation of the dietary guidelines par excellence is the nutritional pyramid, constantly changing to adapt to new trends and scientific evidence.

In addition, there are specific dietary guidelines within each country, adapted to population groups, by eating trend, by pathologies ... although they all have advice in common.

In our country, the (SENC) is responsible for publishing the healthy.

What do the dietary guidelines have in common?

FAO itself informs us that there is a set of common recommendations in all dietary guidelines for any type of population:

• Increase the consumption of fruits and vegetables.
• Control fat intake, specifying reducing the consumption of saturated fats and replacing fats of animal origin with fats of vegetable origin.
• Reduce the consumption of food and drinks with high sugar content.
• Reduce the intake of Salt.
• Limit the consumption of processed meat, canned food and other processed foods.
• Water must be the main drink for adequate hydration.
• Limit a lot the consumption of alcohol (very sporadic consumption).
• Carry out daily physical activity.

Also, what is advised in our country?

• Eat as a family at least once a day, sharing a main meal.
• Avoid food ultra-processed.
• Keep traditional recipes since they are part of the culture of the country.
• Use healthy culinary techniques.
• Promote sustainable consumption, choosing seasonal and local products.
• Spend enough time to read and rate the information of the nutritional labeling.

And all this, without forgetting that at the base of the pyramid we also find basic considerations such as practice daily physical activity, maintain an emotional balance and eat the appropriate amounts to maintain an adequate weight.

What should include a balanced, varied and moderate diet?

• Cereals whole grain and whole derivatives.
• Vegetables: 2-3 servings a week
• Fruit: 3 pieces of whole fruit daily and one is a citrus.
• Vegetable: 2 servings of vegetables a day (at lunch and dinner), one of the servings must be raw, enhancing the variety of colors and textures.
• Dairy products: 2-3 servings a day, preferably low in fat and without added sugar.
• Fish: 2-3 servings a week, and 2 of them of blue fish.
• Consume more white meat and less red meat.
• Preferential use of extra virgin olive oil as a cooking and dressing fat.

Despite the fact that all dietary guides include positive and clear messages on how to better manage nutrition, with a language that is easily understood by everyone, WHO estimates that 50% of the population does not comply with the recommendations of the experts regarding eating habits and active lifestyle, which leads us to think about new designs of communication and outreach strategies to reach a larger population.

• Public health policies use dietary guidelines for the prevention and management of chronic diseases and community health promotion strategies.
• Among the recommendations we find increasing the consumption of fruits and vegetables, reducing saturated fats and replacing fats of animal origin with those of vegetable origin, reducing the consumption of foods and beverages with high sugar content, the intake of salt or limiting the of processed meat, preserves and other processed ...
• At the base of the pyramid we find basic considerations such as practicing daily physical activity, maintaining an emotional balance, and eating the corresponding amounts to maintain an adequate weight.

Monica Carreira