What are healthy diets? Joint statement by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and the World Health Organization

Healthy diets promote health, growth and development, support active lifestyles, prevent nutrient deficiencies and excesses, communicable and noncommunicable diseases (NCDs), foodborne diseases and promote wellbeing. The critical role of diets in the prevention of all forms of malnutrition, for disease prevention and health promotion, as well as the interconnections between food production, diets and the environment, have never been more evident. With such prominence in the scientific literature and public media has come a range of definitions and perspectives about what constitute healthy diets, and how these can be achieved, while protecting the environment. Heads have turned to the agrifood system and the ways in which it can and must be transformed to contribute to the commitments of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition, elevating levels of human health, and protecting and restoring the environment. But lack of consensus of what constitute healthy diets can undermine progress and continuity of efforts to achieve them. To accelerate progress towards the achievement of these interconnected commitments, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO) have formulated principles of what constitute healthy diets. These principles, are underpinned by guidelines and other normative elements developed by the two Organizations. Multiple dietary patterns that meet these principles, and in which foods are safe, can therefore be defined as healthy dietary patterns.