Define the Dietary Guidelines?

Dietary Guidelines are becoming increasingly powerful tools to help the general public to appreciate the role of diet in prevention of degenerative diseases associated with ageing, affluence and environmental degradation. Unlike the RDAs, which provide information on nutrient requirements in quantitative terms, the dietary guidelines are qualitative and the purpose is not so much to help people to get the nutrients as per RDA but to facilitate people to choose diets that are health promoting and disease preventing.

While there is only one set of nutrient requirements and RDAs for each country, there can be several dietary guidelines for people within a country. Many countries have come up with Food based Dietary Guidelines appropriate to their culture and food habits. In India, there are at least two sets of Dietary Guidelines that have been published to help the general public at large. The first by the National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad and the second by the Department of Women and Child Development, of the ministry of Human Resources. Interested students can obtain these from the respective institutions.