Can common dietary assessment methods be better designed to capture the nutritional contribution of neglected, forest, and wild foods to diets?

Food systems are the primary cause of biodiversity loss globally. Biodiversity and specifically, the role that wild, forest and neglected and underutilised species (NUS) foods might play in diet quality is gaining increased attention. The narrow focus on producing affordable staples for dietary energy has contributed to largely homogenous and unhealthy diets.

Vegetables for Healthy Diets in Low- and Middle-Income Countries: A Scoping Review of the Food Systems Literature.

Background: Vegetables are an essential element in healthy diets, but intakes are low around the world and there is a lack of systematic knowledge on how to improve diets through food system approaches.

Methods: This scoping review assessed how studies of food systems for healthy diets have addressed the role of vegetables in low- and middle-income countries. We apply the PRISMA guidelines for scoping reviews to narratively map the literature to an accepted food systems framework and identify research gaps.

Assessing Diet Quality of Indigenous Food Systems in Three Geographically Distinct Solomon Islands Sites (Melanesia, Pacific Islands).

Indigenous Solomon Islanders, like many living in Pacific Small Island Developing States (PSIDS), are currently experiencing the global syndemic-the combined threat of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change. This mixed-method study aimed to assess nutrition transitions and diet quality by comparing three geographically unique rural and urban indigenous Solomon Islands populations. Participants in rural areas sourced more energy from wild and cultivated foods; consumed a wider diversity of foods; were more likely to meet WHO recommendations of >400g of non-starchy fruits and vegetables daily; were more physically active; and had significantly lower body fat, waist circumference, and body mass index (BMI) when compared to urban populations.

Uptake and impact of priority setting exercises in nutrition research publications.

Objective: To assess how priority setting exercises for nutrition research are considered in publication.

Design: Cross-sectional design.

Settings: First, a citation analysis of priority setting exercises found in nutrition research until 2019 was conducted.

A cross-disciplinary mixed-method approach to understand how food retail environment transformations influence food choice and intake among the urban poor: Experiences from Vietnam.

Nutrition insecurity among urban poor in modernizing Asian metropolises is a critical issue. It is well recognized that in urban Asia the poor are food insecure. Across Asia the food retail environment is transforming rapidly, in which supermarkets increasingly replace traditional food vending, like markets and street vendors that the urban poor depend upon.

Food safety and nutrition for low-income urbanites: exploring a social justice dilemma in consumption policy.

Equitable access to healthy food is a critical challenge in urban Asia. Food safety governance promotes modern supermarkets over more traditional markets, but supermarkets are associated with unequal access to food. This study investigates how retail policies driven by food safety impact the diets of the urban poor in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Dietary species richness as a measure of food biodiversity and nutritional quality of diets.

Biodiversity is key for human and environmental health. Available dietary and ecological indicators are not designed to assess the intricate relationship between food biodiversity and diet quality. We applied biodiversity indicators to dietary intake data from and assessed associations with diet quality of women and young children.

Assessing the potential of wild foods to reduce the cost of a nutritionally adequate diet: an example from eastern Baringo District, Kenya.

Background: Wild foods and their actual and potential contributions to nutrition security have rarely been studied or considered in nutrition and conservation programs.

Objective: To study the role of wild food biodiversity in achieving a cost reduction of a nutritionally adequate diet for women and young children in Kenya using linear programming.

Methods: An ethnobiological inventory of available food biodiversity was carried out by means of focus group discussions, and five wild foods were selected for further modeling.