Abstract
Food choices and eating behaviours have a large impact on both human and planetary health. Recently, the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations and the World Health Organisation have developed a list of 16 guiding principles to achieve sustainable healthy diets (SHDs). They proposed that development of food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) should be a core element in the implementation of these SHDs in each country. The objective of this review is to explore the degree of alignment of current FBDGs to these guiding principles. A total of 43 FBDGs, written or translated into English, were collected from the online repository developed by the FAO and were analysed for their adherence to each of the guiding principles. Results were stratified for period of publication and geographical macro-area. Overall, there were high levels of inclusion of the factors related to health outcomes, especially in the most recent FBDGs. Conversely, environmental impact and socio-cultural aspects of diet were considered less frequently, especially in the older FBDGs. These results highlight the importance of revising FBDGs, especially to include emerging topics which represent the areas with the highest scope for improvement in the future versions of FBDGs. Replication of the present study in the coming years will be worthwhile to monitor improvements in the adherence of global FBDGs to the guiding principles of SHDs. The attainment of such a goal could promote a more rapid transition towards SHDs, as well as highlighting pivotal research trajectories to increase adoption and evaluate the impact on the food system.
Highlights
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 estimated that, in the adult population, 22% of total deaths (11 million total) and 15% of disability-adjusted life-years (255 million total) are attributable to dietary risk factors [1]
A total of 43 food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) were available in English on the Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO) online repository
The analysis revealed a high level of compliance from FBDGs with healthrelated guiding principles, but a critically low level of compliance with principles related to environmental impact and sociocultural aspects
Summary
The Global Burden of Disease Study 2017 estimated that, in the adult population (older than 25 years), 22% of total deaths (11 million total) and 15% of disability-adjusted life-years (255 million total) are attributable to dietary risk factors [1]. While it is well-established that food choice and eating behaviours represent two important determinants of human health, they may have an impact on the health of the planet at large [2,3]. Diet and the food system in general must take into account the planetary health as a major challenge [2,11,12]
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