FOOD VARIETY AS A QUANTITATIVE DESCRIPTOR OF FOOD-INTAKE

A dietary guideline, which has been assumed by several countries, is t o achieve the inclusion of a variety of foods in the diet. The major r eason for inclusion of food variety as a dietary guideline is the gene rally accepted concept that eating a wider variety of foods improves n utrient adequacy. There may also be other reasons why food variety rel ates to health status. An approach for the development and use of food variety scores is presented together with a basis and logic for scori ng food variety. Food variety scores quantify the number of different foods (individual foods, food mixtures, food categories, or a combinat ion of these) consumed, and are expressed over a time period or base w hich may be a day, a week, a month, or a year. The ultimate approach u sed to calculate food variety may reflect the method by which food int ake is assessed, the culture within which the score is to be applied, the definition of a distinct food, and the hypotheses and objectives o f the study. If a food is consumed, a score of ''one'' is given. There are no assumptions about quantity, or frequency of consumption. No ad ditional score is given for larger serving sizes, or if foods are eate n more than once over the time base. Foods which score are added toget her to obtain a final food variety score. A major test of the usefulne ss of food variety scores is their predictiveness of health outcomes, and whether relationships observed are consistent with biological expl anations. Food variety, or dietary diversity scores have been used pre viously to demonstrate that greater dietary diversity is associated wi th better nutritional adequacy. A greater food variety has also been a ssociated with improved health status.