Review Article Diet variety: a measure of nutritional adequacy and health

Most studies in the field of nutritional epidemiology have focused on association of one single nutrient intake and non-communicable diseases. Due to co-linearity problems in nutrient intakes, it has been recommended to consider the whole diet instead of one single nutrient of food. Variety is one of the characteristics of healthy diet and a diverse diet can prevent from nutrient deficiency or overfeeding. Diet quality indices help assessing the dietary adherence to dietary guidelines. Evaluating dietary quality is an expensive and time-consuming method which requires a strong methodology. As the dietary diversity score (DDS) could be an indicator of diet quality, therefore it might be used as a simple and an inexpensive index for assessing the diet quality. Several reports have been published regarding the relationship between DDS and non-communicable disease risk factors. The prevalence of metabolic risks is almost high among the population with low DDS. Hence, DDS might be used as a measure of both diet quality and the incidence of noncommunicable diseases. The aim of this review study was to discuss about DDS, the methods of measurements, and also the relationship between dietary quality and the risk of chronic disease.