School of Medicine, University of Wollongong, Northfields Avenue, Wollongong, NSW 2522, Australia.
Grains & Legumes Nutrition Council, 1 Rivett Road, North Ryde, NSW 2113, Australia.
Nutrients. 2022 Apr 22;14(9):1753. doi: 10.3390/nu14091753.
Dietary guidelines provide evidence-based guidance for healthy individuals to improve dietary patterns, although they are most often based on individual foods or food groups. Legumes are a class of food included in current Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADG), mentioned in two of the five food groups, as a vegetable and as an alternative to meat. Whole grain consumption is encouraged in ADG via the statement focused on cereal grains due to their health-promoting properties. Despite their prominence in guidelines, average legume and whole grain consumption in Australia remains lower than recommendations outlined in the ADG. This exploratory study aimed to understand consumer perspectives of wording utilised in dietary guidelines specifically focused on legumes and whole grains. Based on the analysis, there was a significant preference for the statement “each day, consume at least one serve of legumes either as a serve of vegetables or as an alternative to meat” (p < 0.05), which provides a specific frequency and quantification for legume consumption. For whole grain, the significantly preferred statement was “choose whole grain products over refined grains/white flour products whenever you can” indicating a less prescriptive option. Effective messaging in guidelines could consider greater specificity regarding frequency, quantity and quality of foods recommended. This exploratory study suggests an improvement in the adoption and consumption of legumes and whole grains in the Australian diet may be better facilitated through consumer-tested messaging.
饮食指南为健康个体提供了基于证据的指导，以改善饮食模式，尽管它们通常基于个别食物或食物组。豆类是当前澳大利亚饮食指南 (ADG) 中包含的一类食物，在五个食物组中的两个中被提及，作为蔬菜和肉类的替代品。由于其促进健康的特性，ADG 鼓励全谷物消费，这一点在侧重于谷物的声明中得到了强调。尽管豆类和全谷物在指南中占有重要地位，但澳大利亚的豆类和全谷物平均消费仍低于 ADG 中概述的建议。这项探索性研究旨在了解消费者对专门针对豆类和全谷物的饮食指南中使用的措辞的看法。基于分析，对于“每天至少食用一份豆类，可以作为蔬菜的一份或肉类的替代品”这一说法有明显的偏好（p<0.05），这为豆类消费提供了具体的频率和量化。对于全谷物，明显偏好的说法是“只要有可能，选择全谷物产品而不是精制谷物/白面产品”，这表明了一种不太规范的选择。指南中的有效信息传递可以考虑更具体的频率、数量和质量的食物建议。这项探索性研究表明，通过经过消费者测试的信息传递，可以更好地促进豆类和全谷物在澳大利亚饮食中的采用和消费。
