Healthy Diet Metrics A Suitability Assessment Of Indicators For Global And National Monitoring Purposes

This report scientifically assesses the validity, usefulness, and fitness-for-purpose of existing healthy diet metrics for population assessment for global and national monitoring. Existing healthy diet metrics were identified and critically assessed through a set of criteria for their use as global and national monitoring indicators. After comparative evaluation, three healthy diet metrics were identified as the most suitable for global and national monitoring. The report highlights strengths and weaknesses for the existing healthy diet indicators. Some may be suitable for simple data collection tools and short data collection time while other indicators may require complex quantitative dietary information, lengthy data collection time, and might need to confirm the validity in various contexts. Some of them may only capture a limited number of the sub-constructs of the construct of healthy diets. The report underlines main knowledge gap regarding the population groups for which the metrics could be used – whether these indicators were developed for a particular demographic and/or socioeconomic groups and their ability to be used for other population groups. The report also identifies key priority areas to further explore how these indicators could be used for more population groups and settings.

With rapidly changing diets, the burden of disease due to the consumption of unhealthy diets is a worldwide concern. Assessment and monitoring of diets across countries and population groups is critical. However, there are no harmonized metrics for tracking how the healthfulness of diets around the world is evolving. Recognizing the need for consensus and action, and to chart a way forward, FAO, UNICEF, and WHO established the Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative (HDMI) in 2022. The joint mission of this Initiative was articulated through discussions at a technical expert meeting in Bellagio, Italy, in late 2022. This meeting report includes the discussions and conclusions made on the suitability of existing metrics for assessment and monitoring of healthy diets nationally and globally. It also includes a workplan roadmap for the HDMI for the next two years towards the development of a global guidance on healthy diets metrics.

Monitoring of dietary intake at national and global levels is becoming increasingly important with the changing food systems and diets. Better measurement and monitoring are needed to support governments in establishing policies and programmes to promote healthy diets and assess the effectiveness of these actions. However, there is lack of consensus on the indicators that best capture the properties of healthy diets. Recognizing the need for consensus and action, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), and the World Health Organization (WHO), have joined forces to chart a way forward via Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative (HDMI). This is the first version of the guidance for monitoring healthy diets globally, which provides an overview of healthy diets measurement purposes, types of surveys suitable for the monitoring purpose, appropriate dietary assessment methods, relevant dietary data types and potential healthy diet metrics for national and global monitoring purposes. The guidance will be enhanced in the coming years to reflect the most up to date technical and operational recommendations, after rounds of consultations with countries and experts actively engaged in the implementation of surveys and data collection processes.

Unhealthy diets are recognized globally as key contributors to morbidity and mortality. As food systems and diets evolve globally, the importance of monitoring what people eat has never been more critical. Yet, there is a lack of consensus on what constitutes healthy diets and how to measure them. In collective recognition of this challenge, the Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative (HDMI), a partnership among FAO, UNICEF and WHO was established in 2022 with the mission of enabling national and global decision-makers and stakeholders to monitor and achieve healthy diets for people and the planet. We invite all national governments, United Nations agencies and international organizations, implementing partners, donors, civil society organizations, researchers and other key stakeholders (such as those concerned about climate change and food systems) to read our Call to Action and join the Healthy Diets Monitoring Initiative.

This meeting report is an outcome of the WHO-UNICEF Technical Expert Advisory Group on Nutrition Monitoring (TEAM), which was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The goal of the consultation was to promote increased communication, coordination and collaboration for the purpose of accelerating progress towards identifying or developing a parsimonious set of metrics for global monitoring of healthy diets for individuals over 2 years of age. Eighty-five participants took part in the consultation, representing a wide range of institutions and roles in the data value chain.

Human health is facing unprecedented threats from global environmental change. This book describes the challenges and opportunities to safeguard health.

Sustainable Food System Assessment provides both practical and theoretical insights about the growing interest in and response to measuring food system sustainability. Bringing together research from the Global North and South, this book shares lessons learned, explores intended and actual project outcomes, and highlights points of conceptual and methodological convergence. Interest in assessing food system sustainability is growing, as evidenced by the Milan Urban Food Policy Pact and the importance food systems initiatives have taken in serving as a lever for attaining the UN Sustainable Development Goals. This book opens by looking at the conceptual considerations of food systems indicators, including the place-based dimensions of food systems indicators and how measurements are implicated in sense-making and visioning processes. Chapters in the second part cover operationalizing metrics, including the development of food systems indicator frameworks, degrees of indicator complexities, and practical constraints to assessment. The final part focuses on the outcomes of assessment projects, including impacts on food policy and communities involved, highlighting the importance of building connections between sustainable food systems initiatives. The global coverage and multi-scalar perspectives, including both conceptual and practical aspects, make this a key resource for academics and practitioners across planning, geography, urban studies, food studies, and research methods. It will also be of interest to government officials and those working within NGOs. The Open Access version of this book, available at https://www.routledge.com/Sustainable-Food-System-Assessment-Lessons-from-Global-Practice/Blay-Palmer-Conare-Meter-Battista-Johnston/p/book/9781032083933, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license.

Considering the detrimental environmental impact of current food systems, and the concerns raised about their sustainability, there is an urgent need to promote diets that are healthy and have low environmental impacts. These diets also need to be socio-culturally acceptable and economically accessible for all. Acknowledging the existence of diverging views on the concepts of sustainable diets and healthy diets, countries have requested guidance from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) on what constitutes sustainable healthy diets. These guiding principles take a holistic approach to diets; they consider international nutrition recommendations; the environmental cost of food production and consumption; and the adaptability to local social, cultural and economic contexts. This publication aims to support the efforts of countries as they work to transform food systems to deliver on sustainable healthy diets, contributing to the achievement of the SDGs at country level, especially Goals 1 (No Poverty), 2 (Zero Hunger), 3 (Good Health and Well-Being), 4 (Quality Education), 5 (Gender Equality) and 12 (Responsible Consumption and Production) and 13 (Climate Action).