Concordance of dietary intake with the "Dietary Guidelines for Americans" among adults in rural "Santa Rosa" province, Guatemala

Two-hundred sixty-nine food frequency questionnaires of a rural township an d its hamlets in Santa Rosa, Guatemala were used to assess spontaneous conc ordance of eating patterns and lifestyle with the 1995 Dietary Guidelines f or Americans. The instrument allowed for full or partial evaluation of five of the seven Guidelines. We found concordance in terms of grains, vegetabl es and fruits; low consumption of the milk group, and excess of the meat an d beans group, determined by high consumption of beans. Their diet did not show variety. In terms of consumption of "plenty" of grains, vegetables and fruits, our population consumed more than 55% of their energy from these i tems. With respect to fat, mean consumption was 24.5 +/- 14.9% energy. Mode ration in sugar is suggested, when analyzing sugar portions, our population consumed more than 10% from this food group. Santa Rosan's had a very low reported alcohol consumption, less than one portion per year, on average, i ndicating that this recommendation is totally fulfilled. Weight maintenance , physical activity, and sodium/salt consumption, were not evaluated, as th e instrument does not include questions about these items. For health autho rities in Latin America, the message might be that maintenance and conserva tion of traditional dietary patterns is the strategy to adopt for the contr ol of noncommunicable diseases through the epidemiological transition phase of development, while recommending improvement in those areas that are sti ll deficient. For US residents, the adoption of meal patterns based on trad itional cuisines may be a feasible way to enhance compliance with the Guide lines. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Inc. All rights reserved.