Abstract

GIL, Ángel; RUIZ-LOPEZ, María Dolores; FERNANDEZ-GONZALEZ, Miguel  and  MARTINEZ DE VICTORIA, Emilio. The FINUT healthy lifestyles guide: beyond the food pyramid. Nutr. Hosp. [online]. 2015, vol.31, n.5, pp.2313-2323. ISSN 1699-5198.  https://dx.doi.org/10.3305/nh.2015.31.5.8803.

The World Health Organization has proposed that health be promoted and protected through the development of an environment that enables sustainable actions at individual, community, national and global levels. Indeed, food-based dietary guidelines, i.e., food pyramids, have been developed in numerous countries to disseminate nutritional information to the general population. However, wider recommendations are needed, with information on an active, healthy lifestyle, not just healthy eating. The objective of the present work is to propose a three-dimensional pyramid as a new strategy for promoting adequate nutrition and active healthy lifestyles in a sustainable way. Indeed, the Iberomerican Nutrition Foundation (FINUT) pyramid of healthy lifestyles has been designed as a tetrahedron, its three lateral faces corresponding to the binomials food and nutrition, physical activity and rest, and education and hygiene. Each lateral face is divided into two triangles. These faces show the following: 1. food-based guidelines and healthy eating habits as related to a sustainable environment; 2. recommendations for rest and physical activity and educational, social and cultural issues; 3. selected hygiene and educational guidelines that, in conjunction with the other two faces, would contribute to better health and provide measures to promote environmental sustainability. The new FINUT pyramid is addressed to the general population of all ages and should serve as a guide for living a healthy lifestyle within a defined social and cultural context. It includes an environmental and sustainability dimension providing measures that should contribute to the prevention of non-communicable chronic diseases.

Keywords : Food guidelines; Feeding behavior; Environmental health; Physical activity; Hygiene; Conservation of natural resources.

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