The inclusion of all foods in a balanced diet is a principle that is highlighted by nutritionists in order to ensure compliance with dietary guidelines. In France, in the context of the National Nutrition and Health Programme (PNNS), general messages on a healthy diet are issued to the population, and some of them, such as "eat at least 5 fruits and vegetables a day" are now well known to the general public. However, these dietary guidelines are not always adapted to the current complexity of the foods available. For example, they do not help consumers to choose between two foods that appear to belong to the same food group (e.g. dairy dessert and yoghurt) or to obtain an idea of the nutritional quality of products made up of several food groups, such as prepared meals or snacks. Thus it is not always easy for consumers to navigate between supermarket shelves and fill their trolleys in an informed manner. For this reason, a new type of guideline based on the "nutritional profile" of foods (i.e. their nutritional quality) might be beneficial.
Based on food consumption data collected from 1171 adults aged 18 and over during the INCA 1 survey in 1991, the researchers developed a method to quantify the respective shares of foods with good and poor nutritional profiles in the French diet. To do this, they based their work on the SAIN, LIM nutritional profiling system that they had previously developed. This system uses two indicators, SAIN and LIM, which separately estimate the favourable (SAIN = rich in protective nutrients such as vitamins, minerals, fibre and essential fatty acids) and unfavourable (LIM = content in substances to be limited, such as sodium, added sugars, saturated fatty acids) aspects of each food. From calculations based on these indicators, the foods were divided into four separate classes.
Using this system, foods that supply more protective nutrients than calories were the most highly ranked (fruits, vegetables, fish, etc.), while foods supplying more fats, salt or sugar than protective nutrients ranked the lowest (butter, fatty charcuterie, preserves, sweetened drinks, etc.). This system also enabled a nutritional ranking of complex food products (such as prepared dishes, savoury snacks, sandwiches, pizzas, etc.).
The scientists then assessed the changes necessary – in terms of the proportion of foods from differently profiled classes – to achieve a nutritionally optimum diet, based on compliance with all the recommended nutritional intakes for the French population.
The proportions of foods in each class of the SAIN, LIM profile were then compared before and after optimisation; i.e. in the diets followed and in the diets optimised to comply with all dietary guidelines. On average, half of the diets followed were made up (in terms of weight) of foods with a good nutritional profile (class 1) and a third of foods with the poorest profile (class 4). In optimised diets, the proportion of class 1 foods increased to reach nearly 2/3 of the total weight, while that of class 4 foods diminished, but still accounted for about 1/5 of the total weight consumed. These results suggest that in order to increase the probability of complying with nutritional guidelines, it would be necessary to increase the proportion of foods with the best nutritional profile until they account for 2/3 of the total weight ingested, to the detriment of foods with the least satisfactory nutritional profiles.
This study forms part of the current debate on methods to improve policies on nutritional information and education.
References:
Quantifying the contribution of foods with unfavourable nutrient profiles to nutritionally adequate diets. Br J Nutr, 2011, 105:1133-1137. Maillot M., Drewnowski A., Vieux F., Darmon N.
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