No one diet is appropriate for everyone, the diet should be individualized to meet the caloric

needs of that particular person.

Introduction
Is there any diet that works for everyone? The answer is no. A persons diet depends of multiple
factors that need to be addressed when determining the appropriate diet. A few of these factors
include: Age, gender, genetics, lifestyle, occupation, and socioeconomic background, cultural
attitudes toward food, availability of food in the community and many more.
Dietary guidelines set forth by entities such as the CDC, American Academy of Pediatrics, World
Health Organization give a very generalized list of recommendations. The key word in all of this
is Guidelines, these recommendations are a place to start not the final word about what to eat.

Review of current guidelines in the United States

According
the food and nutrition guidelines set forth by such entities as the CDC or the
AAP are wrong and have very little value. Below are the guidelines.
Dietary guidelines set out by the Centers for Disease control are as follows
1. Emphasizes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and fat-free or low-fat milk and milk
product
2. Includes lean meats, poultry, fish, beans, eggs, and nuts
3. Is low in saturated fats, trans fats, cholesterol, salt (sodium), and added sugars
4. Stays within your daily calorie needs
American Academy of Pediatrics has guidelines that address individual aspects of nutrition for
teens and children. These include such items as:

A Teenagers Nutritional Needs

Calcium: The Teen Bone Builder

Carbohydrates for Energy

Fads and Diets

Fiber: An Important Part of Your Teen's Diet

Food Faux Pas of Adolescence

Food and Adolescent Acne

Healthy and Unhealthy Choices at Fast Food Restaurants

Hidden Caffeine

Hidden Dangers: Food Allergies and Teens

Nourishing Your Growing Teenager

Numbers of Servings per Day for Teenagers

PMS and Sweets

Protein for the Teen Athlete

Pump Up the Diet with Iron

Many more nutrition guidelines are available on line on key factor in reviewing them is to
determine the quality of the research presented. Not all articles, blogs and information is created
the same. A quality study will involve large numbers of subjects, double blind research methods
and appropriate length of study with long term follow up. Relying on only one study or article
leads to faulty conclusions related to lack of information.

Guidelines in other parts of the world.

Food & Nutrition Guidelines for Namibia
In Namibia, a large portion of the population suffers from several forms of malnutrition as a
result of inadequate or poor food intake. These factors can cause not only individual suffering
and hardship issues, but also places a strain on the countrys economy related loss of
productivity, increased absence form school or work that could be avoided by a proper diet.
Conversely there are a large group of Namibians which, because of an increased food intake and
unbalanced food choices, suffer from obesity and associated chronic diseases, such as diabetes,
hypertension and coronary heart disease.
However, nutritional issues in a person or group of people are not always due to poverty or a lack
of appropriate foods needed to maintain a healthy diet. For many people cultural food practices,
eating habits, poor sanitation or contaminated water impact the food which is then consumed. In
these situations there is a need to create awareness of appropriate nutritional needs, educational
programs that teach different functions of the many categories of foods, the proper combination
of foods and their preparation. Education in nutrition needs to take in to consideration the
factors that may affect that particular individual and segment of society.

The guidelines in Namibia aim to help people to develop and continue to practice healthy eating
habits. The Guidelines are based upon current scientific and public health knowledge available at
present from the developed world as research in their own country is not adequate. The
guidelines then take in to account data including nutrients and food that are available in the
Namibia, dietary habits, cultural related food practices and current statistics related to morbidity
and mortality in Namibia. The following are the current guidelines:
Eat a variety of foods
Eat vegetables and fruit every day
Eat more fish
Eat beans or meat regularly
Use whole-grain products
Use only iodized salt but use less salt
Eat at least three meals a day
Avoid drinking alcohol
Eat a varietv of foods

New Mexico
Adult Statistics
Adults aged 18 years and older made up 75.7% of New Mexico's population in 2013.
Overweight and Obesity
o 36.3% of adults were overweight, with a body mass index (BMI) of 25-29.9.
o 26.4% of adults were obese, with a BMI of 30 or greater.
Dietary Behaviors
o 39.2% of adults reported consuming fruit less than one time daily.
o 21.5% of adults reported consuming vegetables less than one time daily.
Physical Activity

o 50.5% of adults participated in 150 minutes or more of aerobic physical activity

per week.
o 24.3% of adults reported that during the past month, they had not participated in
any physical activity.
Adolescent Statistics
People younger than 18 years of age made up 24.3% of the total population in 2013.
Overweight and Obesity
o 15.0% of adolescents were overweight ( 85th and < 95th percentiles for BMI by
age and sex, based on reference data).
o 12.6% of adolescents were obese (95th percentile BMI by age and sex, based on
reference data).
Dietary Behaviors
o 42.1% of students in grades 9-12 ate fruit or drank 100% fruit juices less than one
time daily.
o 37.6% of students in grades 9-12 consumed vegetables less than one time daily.
o 75.3% of adolescents drank a can, bottle, or glass of soda or pop (not including
diet soda or diet pop, during the 7 days before the survey).
Physical Activity
o 74.9% of adolescents did not attend daily physical education classes on all 5 days
during an average week when they go to school.
o 68.9% of adolescents were not physically active at least 60 minutes per day on all
7 days.
o 12.7% of adolescents did not participate in at least 60 minutes of physical activity
on at least 1 day during the 7 days before the survey.
o 26.4% of adolescents watched television 3 or more hours per day on an average
school day.

Summary
There's a lot of talk about the different components of food. Whether you're consuming
carbohydrates, fats, or proteins all of them contain calories. If your diet focus is on any one of
these alone, you're missing the bigger picture.
The Food and Nutrition Guidelines apply to the total diet, and it is not appropriate to use them
to assess the healthiness of individual food items. Similarly, the Food and Nutrition
Guidelines are designed for consideration as a coherent set of advice or information, and the
individual guidelines cannot be considered in isolation.
The recommendations are not appropriate for all members of a family or society. However,
health professionals can largely build on the principles contained in the guidelines when
developing specific diets for groups with special needs

Resources

http://www.cdc.gov/nccdphp/dnpao/state-local-programs/profiles/new-mexico.html
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/what-the-world-eats/
https://fnic.nal.usda.gov/professional-and-career-resources/ethnic-and-cultural-resources/dietaryguidelines-around-world
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/25/school-lunches-around-the-world_n_6746164.html
http://ajcn.nutrition.org/content/84/2/289.long
http://www.fao.org/3/a-as839e.pdf