Mixed
Global dietary patterns based on the consumption of healthy items (fruits, vegetables, whole grains, etc.) improved modestly between 1990 and 2010, whereas patterns based on the consumption of unhealthy items (sugar-sweetened beverages, processed meats, sodium, etc.) worsened significantly.
To improve your diet quality, you must address both increasing healthy foods (fruits, vegetables, whole grains) and decreasing unhealthy foods (sugar-sweetened beverages, processed meats, sodium). Focusing only on adding healthy items while ignoring the reduction of harmful ones will not improve your overall dietary score, as these trends often diverge.
From 1990 to 2010, diets based on healthy items improved globally (by 2·2 points, 95% uncertainty interval (UI) 0·9 to 3·5), whereas diets based on unhealthy items worsened (–2·5, –3·3 to –1·7).
Why this rating
The study uses a systematic assessment of 325 nationally representative surveys covering 88.7% of the global adult population, providing high-quality observational data.
Source
Dietary quality among men and women in 187 countries in 1990 and 2010: a systematic assessment
Fumiaki Imamura et al. · The Lancet Global Health · 2015
DOI 10.1016/s2214-109x(14)70381-x
More from this paper
- Higher national income is associated with better adherence to healthy dietary patterns but significantly worse adherence to unhealthy dietary patterns, creating a divergence in diet quality metrics.Good
- Middle-income nations experienced the largest deterioration in dietary patterns based on unhealthy items between 1990 and 2010, despite showing the largest improvement in healthy dietary patterns.Good
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