Abstract
The aim of this article is to present the development of cross-country comparable food reference budgets in 26 European countries, and to discuss their usefulness as an addition to food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) for tackling food insecurity in low-income groups. Reference budgets are illustrative priced baskets containing the minimum goods and services necessary for well-described types of families to have an adequate social participation. This study was conducted starting from national FBDG, which were translated into monthly food baskets. Next, these baskets were validated in terms of their acceptability and feasibility through focus group discussions, and finally they were priced. Along the paper, we show how that food reference budgets hold interesting contributions to the promotion of healthy eating and prevention of food insecurity in low-income contexts in at least four ways: (1) they show how a healthy diet can be achieved with limited economic resources, (2) they bring closer to the citizen a detailed example of how to put FBDG recommendations into practice, (3) they ensure that food security is achieved in an integral way, by comprising the biological but also psychological and social functions of food, and (4) providing routes for further (comparative) research into food insecurity.
Highlights
IntroductionIn a moment in which 18.8% of the global burden of disease has been attributed to unhealthy eating [1], and in the context of growing inequalities in many countries [2,3,4,5,6], policy-makers face the challenge of developing strategies that are sufficiently powerful to revert long-standing patterns of unhealthy eating
In a moment in which 18.8% of the global burden of disease has been attributed to unhealthy eating [1], and in the context of growing inequalities in many countries [2,3,4,5,6], policy-makers face the challenge of developing strategies that are sufficiently powerful to revert long-standing patterns of unhealthy eating.While ecologic approaches and upstream actions have been argued to be indispensable to effectively tackle the situation, actions addressed to the individual are still timely [7,8,9]
We present food reference budgets (RBs) for 26 EU Member States, as a tool that can complement regular food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) to better orientate the dietary intake of low-income groups
Summary
In a moment in which 18.8% of the global burden of disease has been attributed to unhealthy eating [1], and in the context of growing inequalities in many countries [2,3,4,5,6], policy-makers face the challenge of developing strategies that are sufficiently powerful to revert long-standing patterns of unhealthy eating. While ecologic approaches and upstream actions have been argued to be indispensable to effectively tackle the situation, actions addressed to the individual are still timely [7,8,9]. Dietary Guidelines (FBDG) constitute the closest set of nutritional standards for the population and are primarily intended for consumer information and education. Starting from the available evidence on the most relevant diet-disease relationships for the targeted population, FBDG are science-based. Public Health 2019, 16, 32; doi:10.3390/ijerph16010032 www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerph
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