Perspective:NovelApproachestoEvaluateDietary Quality:CombiningMethodstoEnhance MeasurementforDietarySurveillanceand Interventions

Abstract

Refining existing dietary assessment methods to reduce measurement error and facilitate the routine evaluation of dietary quality is essential to inform health policy. Notable advancements in technology in the past decade have enhanced the precision and transformation of dietary assessmentmethodswithapplicationstowardbothpopulationhealthandprecisionnutrition.Withinpopulationhealth,innovativeapplicationsof bigdataincludinguseofautomaticallycollectedfoodpurchasingdata,quantitativemeasurementoffoodenvironments,andnovel,yetsimplified dietary quality metrics provide important complementary data to traditional self-report methods. Precision nutrition is similarly advancing with greateruseofvalidatedbiomarkersforassessingdietarypatternsandunderstandingindividualvariabilityinmetabolism.Concurrentlyenhancing our understanding of diet–disease relations at the population health and precision nutrition levels provides tremendous potential to generate evidence needed to advance public health nutrition policy. This commentary highlights the importance of these advances toward progressing thefieldofdietaryassessmentanddiscussestheapplicationoffoodpurchasingdata,dataanalytics,alternativedietaryqualitymetrics,and-omics technologyinpopulationandclinicalmedicine