ABSTRACT
Over the past 30 years dozens of expert reports have been published in the industrialized countries that have produced sets of dietary guidelines or recommended changes in national diets. These guidelines and recommendations have been aimed at reducing morbidity and mortality from the diseases of industrialization and so ultimately at promoting health and longevity. Prior to this, most published dietary recommendations and guidelines were geared towards assuring adequate intakes of the essential nutrients and preventing the consequences of deficiency. The first fairly comprehensive standards of adequacy were published as early as 1943 in the USA (National Research Council (NRC), 1943). Truswell (1999) reviewed dietary guidelines around the world at the end of the millennium.
