Dietary guidelines: Pyramids, wheels, plates and sustainability in nutrition education

Abstract

Adequate nutrition of a population should be based on the availability and access to sufficient, safe, healthy and sustainable food in a context that facilitates welfare and health promotion. The traditional Mediterranean Diet, as a millenary culture on the ways of producing, elaborating and sharing food, is a good example of sustainability and biodiversity. The benefits of promoting biodiversity are not only observed in the cultural or ecological domain, but also in the fight against malnutrition. Food quantity and quality must be complementary and biodiversity favors food variety and maintenance of improved culinary culture as pursued by food-based dietary guidelines.