Pakistan Dietary Guidelines for Better Nutrition.

This Pakistan Dietary Guidelines for Better Nutrition (PDGN) provides comprehensive country specific guidelines for the general public to adopt healthy eating practices, and prevent and reduce the risk of infectious and chronic diseases. The goals for PDGN are to: 1. Improve the nutritional wellbeing of the population by adopting and promoting healthy eating practices and lifestyles; 2. Reduce the incidence of nutritional deficiencies and chronic diseases in the population; 3. Improve the quality of life of the population and contribute to socio-economic development of the country.
The PDGN provide a thorough review of the food security, health and nutrition situation of the population and is cognizant of the fact that about half of the population is deficient in one or more of essential nutrients, reflecting unhealthy dietary practices compounded by poor hygiene and sanitation. Women and young children are more vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies, morbidity and mortality due to their compromised health and nutritional status. The PDGN highlight the predominant consumption of energy dense foods and monotonous diets by majority of the population.
The emphasis of the PDGN is on the consumption of a variety of safe and nutritious foods including milk and milk products, meat and pulses, wholegrain cereals, vegetables and fruits and decreasing consumption of energy dense foods such as deep fried foods, bakery products, processed foods and reducing the amount of fat specifically saturated fat, oil, sugar and salt in cooking.