EUROPREV healthy diet : promoting a healthy diet through counselling in primary care

Abstract

The goal of this paper is to promote a healthy diet, improve the health status of the population and prevem chronic non- communicable diseases that are related to unhealthy diet. Diet plays an importam role in coronary hean disease, cancers, diabetes mellitus, hypertension, cerebrovascular disease and obesity. This documem is imended for primary care professionals as a tool for nutrition-related advice and guidance to patiems. In their daily practice, such professionals must provide instructions based on healthy life-style , while addressing problems in nutrition and diet, physical activity and excessive alcohol intake. These recommendations are imended for healthy individuals, offering detailed information on disease prevention and health promotion, based on a healthy diet. A public health approach is used, keeping in mind the variety in population. These instructions should be used as a first step towards strategy development, i.e. informing the public, dietary instructions, public courses on healthy diet, production of health education materials for professionals and patients, protocols for risk assessment and their imerpretation, etc.