Nutritionally adequate food baskets optimised for cultural acceptability as basis for dietary guidelines for low-income Czech families

Abstract

BackgroundCzech nutrition recommendations prioritize health aspects without considering affordability. Low socio-economic groups have the highest risk of nutrition-related noncommunicable diseases and cost has been identified as an obstacle to achieve a healthy diet, making the implementation of affordability into dietary guidelines necessary. The aim of this study was to develop a food basket (FB) for a low income Czech family of four that is nutritionally adequate, health-promoting and culturally acceptable at an affordable price.MethodsLinear programming optimisation was used to ascertain that the FB covered the recommended nutrient intakes from the Czech Nutrition Society and from the World Health Organization (WHO). Cost of the FB was calculated on the basis of more than 3900 prices of 330 foods. Within a given cost constraint, all FBs were optimized for the highest possible similarity to the reported food group intake according to the most recent Czech National Food Consumption survey, which was used as a proxy for cultural acceptability.ResultsThe optimised FB affordable at a daily food budget for a Czech family on minimum wage (CZK 177, ~ € 6.8) contained 76 foods and had an average relative deviation of 10% per food category from reported intake. The main deviations were: 72% less sweets and confectionery; 66% less salt; 52% less meat; 50% less milk products; 8% less potatoes; and 484% more milk; 69% more oils and fats; 20% more cereals; and 6% more vegetables.ConclusionsThe optimised FB can help to guide the development of food-based dietary guidelines for low income households in Czech Republic.

Culturally Optimised Nutritionally Adequate Food Baskets for Dietary Guidelines for Minimum Wage Estonian Families

“…If the algorithm calculates a model that meets all applied constraints, then, a feasible solution is said to be found [41]. In LP models, constraints that determine the extent to which the objective function (here, nutrient constraints) can be minimised or maximised are called "active constraints" [23,42,43]. Linear optimisation was done with the COIN-OR CBC optimisation engine algorithm, which is part of the open source add-in OpenSolver (v. 2.9.0) for MS Excel ® [44].…”

“…A well-established method to achieve nutritional adequacy (i.e., cover all acceptable macronutrient distributions (AMDR) and recommended nutrient intakes (RNIs)) is linear optimisation or linear programming (LP). Linear programming can provide dietary solutions that meet RNIs alone, food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) alone, or both these constraints together, while being optimised for cultural acceptability [20][21][22][23]. Once compiled, these FBs could form the basis of Estonian FBDG for low income families and subsequently help to guide the reduction of health inequalities related to diet-associated NCD.…”

Nutrient density of Bangladeshi foods and its application in planning diet for pregnant women

“…Linear programming is a method that helps to formulate diets meeting all the given nutritional constraints by minimizing or maximizing a decision variable [ 19 ]. Several studies have used linear programming to formulate country-specific balanced diets using locally available and culturally accepted foods [ 20 , 30 , 31 ]. A study conducted in Myanmar used the linear programming approach and reported anchovy, chicken liver, beans, and lentil as rich food sources to fill the gap of problem nutrients [ 32 ].…”

“…LP is a mathematical approach with the potential to determine the appropriate selection of foods to achieve the nutrient and food intake recommendations. This technique has previously been applied in several instances, including nutritional quality improvement of food aid [ 18 ], optimization of cultural acceptability of diets [ 19 , 20 ], and cost-minimization of healthy food baskets [ 21 ]. In Bangladesh, LP has previously been used, for example, to develop complementary feeding recommendations for children, and it was reported that a combination of local foods could improve the nutrient density of diets but not entirely meet the children’s nutrient requirements [ 22 ].…”

Assessing the Cost of Nutritionally Adequate and Low-Climate Impact Diets in Finland

“…Hence, radical changes from observed choices are unrealistic [ 38 ]. This general line of reasoning has been used previously in many published studies on diet optimization [ [38] , [39] , [40] , [41] , [42] ]. In addition, the food habit constraints described further also contribute to ensuring the cultural acceptability of the simulated minimum deviation diets.…”