Cross-sectional comparisons of dietary indexes underlying nutrition labels: nutri-score, Canadian ‘high in’ labels and Diabetes Canada Clinical Practices (DCCP)

Purpose To assess the cross-sectional association between dietary indexes (DI) that underlie, respectively, the Nutri-score (NS), the proposed Canadian ‘High In’ Symbol (CHIL) and the Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines (DCCP) with food consumption, nutrient intakes and metabolic markers. Methods 1836 adults (18–74 years) participating in the representative ESTEBAN study, conducted in mainland France in 2014–2016, were included in the analysis. Food consumption was assessed with three repeated 24 h dietary recalls. Anthropometric measurements and biomarkers of metabolic risk (cholesterol—total, LDL (Low Density Lipoprotein), HDL (High Density Lipoprotein)—triglycerides, glucose) were obtained through a clinical examination and fasting blood draw. The DI were assessed for their association with food consumption, dietary intakes and metabolic biomarkers as quintiles and continuous variables using multi-adjusted linear regression. Heathier diets were assigned to lower scores. Results Correlations between scores ranged from + 0.62 between CHIL-DI and NS-DI to + 0.75 between NS-DI and DCCP-DI. All DIs discriminated individuals according to the nutritional quality of their diets through food consumption and nutrient intakes (healthier diets were associated with lower intakes of energy, added sugars and saturated fat; and with higher intakes of fiber, vitamins and minerals). NS-DI was associated with blood glucose (adjusted mean in Q 1 = 5 vs. Q 5 = 5.46 mmol/dl, p trend = 0.001) and DCCP-DI was associated with BMI ( Q 1 = 24.8 kg/m 2 vs. Q 5 = 25.8 kg/m 2 , p trend = 0.025), while CHIL showed no significant association with any anthropometric measures or biomarkers. Conclusions This study provides elements supporting the validity of the nutrient profiling systems underlying front-of-package nutrition labellings (FOPLs) to characterize the healthiness of diets.