Читать книгу Textbook of Lifestyle Medicine - Labros S. Sidossis - Страница 90

Humans consume complex combinations of foods in the context of their meals, rather than individual foods or food groups. This is why it makes even more sense to assess dietary patterns rather than the effect of certain foods or even food groups. Dietary patterns can be described as the type, quantity, quality, frequency, and proportions of foods and drinks that are consumed by a particular population in a specific geographic region. Dietary patterns have developed over the centuries and have been influenced by environmental factors such as climate, terrain, and geography and cultural factors such as tradition and religion.

There are many different dietary patterns around the world that reflect the dietary habits of the populations that have adopted them. The main dietary patterns that have been scientifically studied so far will be presented in the following chapters of the book. The various dietary patterns can be classified into the following categories: (i) those describing the dietary habits of whole populations residing in a specific geographic area (e.g., Mediterranean diet, Asian diet); (ii) those that have been shown to be healthy through epidemiological studies (e.g., the Prudent Dietary Pattern); (iii) those developed to serve certain health goals (e.g., the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension [DASH] and the Therapeutic Lifestyle Changes [TLC] diet); and (iv) those created to be consistent with certain moral principles (e.g., vegetarian diet).