Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 3 — Observational / field trialPeer-reviewed

Dietary diversity is differentially associated with diet quality across food groups

Anaëlle Bolo; Juhui Wang; F. Carpentier; Marion Salomé; Eric O. Verger; H. Fouillet; F. Mariotti

European Journal of Nutrition · 2025

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Summary

This 2025 European Journal of Nutrition paper investigates the relationship between dietary diversity and diet quality, with particular attention to variation across food groups. The findings suggest that dietary diversity does not uniformly predict diet quality; rather, the strength and nature of this association differ depending on the specific food group examined. This work contributes nuance to dietary guidance by demonstrating that increasing diversity alone may not be a universal marker of improved nutritional quality.

UK applicability

The findings are potentially applicable to UK dietary recommendations and public health messaging, which often promote dietary diversity as a key principle. However, the UK-specific applicability depends on whether the cohort studied had dietary patterns comparable to UK populations, which cannot be determined from the metadata alone.

Key measures

Dietary diversity indices, diet quality scores, food group consumption patterns

Outcomes reported

The study examined associations between dietary diversity and diet quality, investigating whether these relationships vary across different food groups. The research appears to quantify how diversity within specific food categories relates to overall nutritional quality of intake.

Theme
Nutrition & health
Subject
Dietary patterns & chronic disease
Study type
Research
Study design
Observational cohort
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
Europe
System type
Food supply chain
DOI
10.1007/s00394-025-03747-1
Catalogue ID
NRmoo8fn83-000

Topic tags

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