Eating patterns, diet quality and energy balance: a perspective about applications and future directions for the food industry.

The food industry is the point of final integration of consumer food choices with dietary guidelines. For more than 40 years, nutrition recommendations emphasized reducing dietary intake of animal fats, cholesterol, and protein and increasing intake of cereal grains. The food industry responded by creating a convenient, low cost and diverse food supply that featured fat-free cookies, cholesterol-free margarines, and spaghetti with artificial meat sauce. However, research focused on obesity, aging, and Metabolic Syndrome has demonstrated merits of increased dietary protein and reduced amounts of carbohydrates. Dietary guidelines have changed from a conceptual framework of a daily balance of food groups represented as building blocks in a pyramid designed to encourage consumers to avoid fat, to a plate design that creates a meal approach to nutrition and highlights protein and vegetables and minimizes grain carbohydrates. Coincident with the changing dietary guidelines, consumers are placing higher priority on foods for health and seeking foods with more protein, less sugars and minimal processing that are fresh, natural, and with fewer added ingredients. Individual food companies must adapt to changing nutrition knowledge, dietary guidelines, and consumer priorities. The impact on the food industry will be specific to each company based on their products, culture and capacity to adapt.