Abstract
In Eastern Mediterranean countries, undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies coexist with overnutrition-related diseases, such as obesity, heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Many Mediterranean countries have produced Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) to provide the general population with indications for healthy nutrition and lifestyles. This narrative review analyses Eastern Mediterranean countries’ FBDGs and discusses their pictorial representations, food groupings and associated messages on healthy eating and behaviours. In 2012, both the WHO and the Arab Center for Nutrition developed specific dietary guidelines for Arab countries. In addition, seven countries, representing 29% of the Eastern Mediterranean Region population, designated their national FBDGs. At the moment several of these guidelines are available only in the English language. In summary, Eastern Mediterranean FBDGs mainly focus on food safety, not all are available in the local Arabic language, and they do not provide specific suggestions for the large number of foreign workers and migrants.
Highlights
Food and nutrition play a key role in the prevention and treatment of undernutrition and over-nutrition, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and some types of cancer [1,2]
The data concerned the Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs) format, additional texts and additional tips regarding fluids, alcohol, physical activity and body weight advice and individual healthy behaviours
Undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies coexist with an alarming increase in obesity and NCDs associated with overnutrition [17,18,19,20]
Summary
Food and nutrition play a key role in the prevention and treatment of undernutrition and over-nutrition, diet-related non-communicable diseases (NCDs), such as obesity, cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, and some types of cancer [1,2]. In several Eastern Mediterranean countries, in the last few decades, several social health determinants such as political instability, low income, urbanization, demography, local conflicts, and migration have dramatically affected food availability and choices and the nutritional status of certain populations [3,4]. Inadequate intake of some nutrients is responsible for undernutrition and micronutrient deficiencies, whilst the increased consumption of processed (added sugars, saturated fat or trans fatty acids, NaCl- and calorie-rich) foods has played a key role in the increased incidence of NCDs [5,6,7,8,9,10,11,12,13,14].
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