Dietary guidelines across different countries & comparisons to dietary guidelines for Indians, 2024.

Abstract

Diet and lifestyle are important modifiable risk factors to reduce the global burden of non-communicable diseases (NCDs). In this review, the Dietary Guidelines for Indians (DGI) were compared with one randomly selected country from each continent. The DGI were designed considering the traditional dietary diversity of the Indians' food habits. DGI are explicit for all age groups, including nutritionally vulnerable populations such as children, pregnant women and older individuals. They include guidelines on pre-cooking and cooking methods, processed foods and other impactful health-related factors like sanitation, clean water supply and physical activity (PA). DGI, 2024 classified nutrient-rich food groups into 10 categories; however, all other countries' food groups range between 4-7 categories. Considering the cultural and socio-economic factors, differences were observed across countries' guidelines regarding recommendations for daily consumption of cereals, fruits, vegetables, pulses, legumes, flesh and dairy products. The unit of measurement, quantity of serving size, sample menus and frequencies of consumption differed across the countries based on availability, affordability and cultural practices in geographical locations. Dietary guidelines (DGs) for nutritionally vulnerable groups were not mentioned uniformly across the countries. Comparison of all DGs showed major emphasis on nutrient-rich food groups, limiting unhealthy fats and sugar and promoting PA. Regular monitoring, understanding the barriers and providing appropriate strategies to overcome them are the major steps to achieve the goals of accepting DGs for the general population. This review concludes by discussing possible barriers and recommending strategies to implement DGI, 2024.