Establishment of the size of portions of fruit and vegetable consumption for use in food guides in the Spanish environment: proposal of the Scientific Committee of the '5 a day' Association

Establishment of the size of portions of fruit and vegetable consumption for use in food guides in the Spanish environment: proposal of the Scientific Committee of the '5 a day' Association

Giuseppe Russolillo, Eduard Baladia, Manuel Moñino, Iva Marques-Lopes, Andreu Farran, Joan Bonany, Victoria Gilabert, Iciar Astiasarán, Maria Dolores Raigón, Alfredo Martínez, Juan Manuel Ballesteros, Francesc Miret, Andreu Palou, María Dolores Romero-de-Ávila, Isabel Polanco, Esperanza Torija, Fernando Rodríguez-Artalejo, Nuria Martínez

Introduction: food servings are standard amounts of food stuffs or drinks to help dietetic advice to promote and preserve health. The aim is to establish the serving size of fruits and vegetables (FH) to be used in food based dietary guidelines (FBDG). Material and methods: Methodology of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) was adapted to establish serving sizes for FBDG, along of the followed by the food exchange system. Data was collected from the FH portion sizes reported in nutritional surveys and common sizes available in the Spanish market, and they were adjusted to an easily recognisable quantities of food with equivalence on key nutrients: the compliance with public health goals for FH consumption was evaluated. Results: Portion sizes typically reported in Spanish nutrition surveys are scarce and not homogeneous, and no data published in scientific journals on portion sizes were available. The Spanish FBDG, in spite of showing a range of serving size for FH, do not assure that they are interchangeable nor specify the method to obtein them.The serving of vegetables was 139,44 g (DS:± 21.98, CV: 0.16), 137,68 g (DS:± 49,61, CV: 0,36) for fruits and 28.00 g (DS:± 7,53, CV: 0.,27) for dried fruits. Conclusions: With the established servings, the recommendation of consuming at least 5 servings of FH a day' would allow reaching the Public Health goals for FH established in 600 g (net weight) / person / day. It is recommended that the Spanish Agency for Consumers, Food Safety and Nutrition (AECOSAN) uses this methodology to establish serving sizes for the rest of food groups that make up the FBDG for the Spanish population.

2019

España, Tamaño de la porción, Verduras, frutas, política nutricional, tamaño de la porción de referencia

10.14306/renhyd.23.4.628

Revista Española de Nutrición Humana y Dietética

Academia Española de Nutrición y Dietética

Nutrition. Foods and food supply, Nutritional diseases. Deficiency diseases