Nutritional goals from COMA and NACNE: how can they be achieved?

A simple way of altering the average British diet to make it comply with the short-term NACNE nutritional goals was discovered by comparing the diet of a cross-section of Cambridge adults with that of a subgroup whose diet approached the desired objectives. Between 1977 and 1979, 105 men and 112 women aged 18-57 completed 7-day semi-weighed records of food consumption. Although no subject achieved all of the NACNE or COMA goals, seven men and three women had diets in which fat provided less than 35 per cent of energy, alcohol less than 10 percent, with fibre more than 20 g/day; total sugars provided 25 per cent of energy. When these diets were compared with those of the rest of the sample (excluding diets where alcohol provided more than 10 per cent of energy), it was seen that men and women in the low-fat, high-fibre group ate more white bread, high-fibre breakfast cereals, low-fat meat dishes, and vegetables, and less brown bread, biscuits, eggs, poultry and fried fish. Only small changes were needed to make the average Cambridge diet consistent with the short-term NACNE goals for fat and fibre. Achieving the COMA or long-term NACNE goals will require more radical change, based on strategies to provide the necessary foodstuffs and nutrition education to allow informed individual choice.