Food Guides

Consumers are often confused by the information and advice continuously offered by the various sources on nutrition and healthy lifestyles, sometimes even by the details on food labels about the composition of nutrients (carbohydrates, fats, proteins, vitamins and minerals). The information is based on historical moments that affect food availability and messages that accompany the sale, as for example the current trend to consume gluten-free products by people suffering from celiac disease and people consuming gluten-free products by fad. Conversely, in the Italian post-war period, many advertising posters offered gluten-added pasta to help balance a low-nutrient diet. Nowadays, this poster (Fig. 1) may seem paradoxical but it was the result of an Italian historical era, with a completely different food availability. Just remember that, according to the first data available from FAO in 1961, the Kcal per capita daily available amounted to 2958 and the protein availability were equal to 82.54 grams per day per person. In 2013 the Kcal availability rose to 3579 registering an increase of 21% and protein availability increased to 108.51 grams per day per person, registering a 31% increase attesting a greater distribution of both availabilities among the population in order to ensure the extinction of structural and contingent forms of hunger.