In addition to ensuring the accessibility and adequacy of diets to reduce hunger and malnutrition in under-consuming populations, the healthfulness and quality of diets are important to reduce risk factors for diet-related diseases for all people. Dietary patterns higher in vegetables, fruits, pulses, nuts and seeds, and whole grains, and lower in red and processed meats, are better for individual health and lower in environmental impacts.
This indicator measures the share of the population who consumed all five food groups — at least one vegetable, fruit, pulse, nut or seed, and starchy staple — typically recommended for daily consumption in food-based dietary guidelines in the past day or night. Consuming these food groups indicates basic dietary adequacy, and it is used here as a proxy for adherence to food-based dietary guidelines.
While data is currently available for only one or two years in select countries, this data indicates that consumption of all five recommended food groups differs substantially across countries. For example, in 2022, over 48% of the populations in Uzbekistan and Albania consumed all five recommended food groups, compared to less than 15% of the populations in Afghanistan and Niger.
Importantly, intake of all five recommended healthy food groups alone is insufficient to protect against diet-related disease if people also consume high levels of foods that dietary guidelines recommend limiting, such as soft drinks, fried foods, red and processed meats, and other sweet and salty foods.