Educational tools for better eating: Origin and evolution of dietary guidelines in Catalonia

Abstract

Dietary guidelines are educational tools based on scientific evidence and on the characteristics of the target population. They must make it easier for people to make better food choices and therefore improve their health, as well as take better care of their environment. The first guidelines used different graphic ideas, until the so-called food triangle or pyramid model, first popularised in the 1990s, became the representation of reference for decades. More recently, the «healthy plate» has come to complement or replace the pyramid in many contexts, although other organisations, such as the Public Health Agency of Catalonia, have chosen to change the approach and design different and innovative guidelines.