• Analí Castellanos-Gutiérrez, Tania G Sánchez-Pimienta, Carolina Batis, Walter Willett, and Juan A Rivera.
• Nutrition and Health Research Center, National Institute of Public Health, Cuernavaca, Mexico.
• Am. J. Clin. Nutr. 2021 May 8; 113 (5): 1177-1184.

BackgroundDietary recommendations worldwide have focused on promoting healthy diets to prevent diseases. In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission presented global scientific targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production and proposed a healthy reference diet (EAT-HRD) that can be adapted to the culture, geography, and demography of the population and individuals in any country.ObjectivesWe aimed to describe the daily energy intake from food groups and subgroups in Mexican adults relative to the EAT-HRD and propose an adaptation of the EAT-HRD to the Mexican context.MethodsWe analyzed data from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Surveys in 2012 and 2016. Diet information was obtained using the 5-step multiple-pass 24-h dietary recall method. We estimated the mean energy intake from food groups and subgroups and compared these figures with the midpoint of the EAT-HRD and with the Mexican Dietary Guidelines (MDGs). We also proposed an adaptation of the EAT-HRD to the Mexican context based on the mean energy intake and the comparison between the MDGs and the EAT-HRD.ResultsMexican adults consume higher than the EAT-HRD for grains (mostly refined), dairy, added sugars, and animal-based proteins (particularly red meat, poultry, eggs, and processed meats); and lower than the EAT-HRD for vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, tubers and starchy vegetables, fish, and added fats. Based on these findings, we propose a healthy and sustainable reference diet adapted for the Mexican population.ConclusionsMexican adults have a diet that is far from being healthy and is not sustainable. The adaptation of the EAT-HRD to the Mexican context is a timely input for current government efforts to move to a sustainable and healthy food system, including the update of the current MDGs.© The Author(s) 2021. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition.

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