Last month Brazil issued the new dietary guidelines. The 143 pages document has received worldwide attention for the way it was drawn up. Contrary to most nutrition guidelines in other countries, Brazil offers practical examples of meals using pictures and an attractive graphic, and sets a clear rule to help the consumer to make his choices: eat natural and minimally processed food.

While the Brazilian document is an easy and pleasant read for anyone interested in improving eating habits, the South African dietary guidelines paper is drawn up as an academic article made up of 163 black/white pages. Now, it is not clear if the intended audience for the South African document was to include final consumers as well, but does not seem to me looking both at the content and at the form in which it is presented.

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