Is anyone following dietary guidelines?
The Food Chain
BBC
4.7 • 545 Ratings
🗓️ 23 January 2025
⏱️ 27 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Around 100 countries have official dietary guidelines, and more are on their way. But who is following them?
Ruth Alexander asks how realistic healthy-eating advice is as she explores how official recommendations are developed, what they’re trying to achieve, and the obstacles standing in our way.
We hear from Fatima Hachem, Senior Nutrition Officer at the United Nation’s Food and Agriculture Organisation, about how her team offers support to countries designing dietary guidelines.
Chiza Kunwenda, senior lecturer in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at the University of Zambia, tells us how he and a team of others drew up the latest dietary guidelines for Zambia and other countries in Africa.
In Argentina, as well as advice, the government has issued black octagonal warning labels on foods high in salt sugar, saturated fats and calories. Are people taking notice?
And can people around the world afford to eat according to guidelines? Dr Anna Herforth co-directed the Food prices for Nutrition project at Tufts University in the United States, tells us what she found. We also hear from shoppers at a community food outlet in the North West of England, about how cost is barrier to healthy eating.
(Image: a plate of food showing suggested dietary guidelines. Credit: Getty Images/BBC)
If you’d like to contact the programme, email thefoodchain@bbc.co.uk.
Producers: Hannah Bewley and Izzy Greenfield.
Transcript
Click on a timestamp to play from that location
| 0:00.0 | Oh, hello. You have chosen a BBC podcast, but before you listen to it, we thought you might |
| 0:04.7 | like our podcast too. You might. You might. It is called Sightracked with me, Nick Grimshaw. |
| 0:09.2 | And me, Annie Mack. And we talk about the week in music. All the news, all the cultural |
| 0:14.0 | happenings in the UK and beyond. And great guests. And it's on BBC Sounds. Yes, where you can |
| 0:19.7 | also enjoy lots of playlists, music mixes and |
| 0:22.6 | live radio. Everything from my six music breakfast show to Radio 3 Unwind. But obviously start |
| 0:29.2 | with our podcast, sidetrack. Obviously. Obviously. So if you like music, listen on BBC |
| 0:33.7 | Sounds. on BBC Sands. |
| 0:47.1 | You join me as I'm having my morning bowl of porridge made with milk and with seeds on top. |
| 0:48.6 | I've already had a coffee. |
| 0:51.1 | I'd say a pretty healthy start to the day. |
| 0:53.6 | It's probably all downhill from here, mind. |
| 0:56.4 | I do try to follow the UK's dietary guidelines. Illustrated as a circle, like a plate, that's divided into segments. More than a third |
| 1:02.7 | should be vegetables and fruit, the same amount carbohydrates, a bit less than a sixth protein, |
| 1:09.0 | and a smaller segment dairy. |
| 1:16.8 | But if I'm honest, I suspect I have more carbs and dairy than I should, not to mention salt and sugar. |
| 1:20.4 | Around 100 countries have dietary guidelines like these. |
| 1:21.6 | More are in production. |
| 1:27.1 | So in this week's edition of the food chain from the BBC World Service with me, Ruth Alexander. I'm finding out how and why |
| 1:29.4 | they're drawn up, whether we stick to them, if not why not, and what's the point of them? |
| 1:37.0 | Governments have been giving out dietary advice for many years. In fact, they first started coming |
| 1:42.3 | out at the turn of the 20th century, as scientists were |
... |
Please login to see the full transcript.
Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.
Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.
Copyright © Tapesearch 2026.