Tips for good nutrition are omnipresent, from advice magazines to advertising. Is that why we eat healthier today than we used to? This can depend on gender, among other things, as a new study shows.
White flour or whole grain? fruit or sweets? The decision is not always easy, even when you know what is healthier. A new study now shows that women around the world are better at sticking to recommended diets than men. On average, they eat a little more fruit, low-starch vegetables such as cabbage, cucumbers or tomatoes, and whole grain products. This is the result of the study published in the journal “Nature Food”. According to studies by researchers led by Victoria Miller from Tufts University (Boston/USA), the lead for women is particularly large in high-income countries as well as in Central and Eastern Europe and Central Asia.
For their study, the research team evaluated data from over 1,100 studies and worked out the nutritional behavior of people from 185 countries between 1990 and 2018. The study also includes data from children and adolescents – a novelty, according to the researchers. They point out some limitations of the study results. For example, complete data is not available for all countries.
In general, people today do not eat much healthier than they did 30 years ago, the researchers report. “The consumption of legumes and nuts and non-starchy vegetables increased over time,” says Miller. “But overall improvements in diet quality were offset by increased intake of unhealthy foods like red or processed meat, sugar-sweetened drinks and sodium.” Sodium is found in table salt, among other things.
On a scale from 0 to 100, which indicates how well people adhere to recommended diets, most countries scored around 40 in 2018 – 1.5 points higher than in 1990. The score 0 stands for a bad diet and 100 for a good, balanced diet. Overall, the researchers assess the quality of nutrition worldwide as “moderate”. The value has only deteriorated in sub-Saharan Africa over the past 30 years. In South Asia it remained virtually unchanged. The countries Brazil, Mexico, the USA and Egypt (27.1-33.5) had the lowest values, while Vietnam, Iran, Indonesia and India (54.5-48.2) had the highest values.
Diet is also influenced by socioeconomic factors such as the level of education, the researchers continue to report. Better educated adults and their children therefore eat healthier on average. “On global average, the quality of nutrition was also better in younger children, but then deteriorated with age,” explains Miller. “This suggests that early childhood is an important time point for intervention strategies to encourage the development of healthy food preferences.”
According to the research team, poor nutrition is one of the main causes of diseases. It is estimated to be responsible for 26 percent of all preventable deaths.