The impact of food choice on diet quality during weight loss: insights from intervention trials

Diet quality may be described in terms of “healthy diet, balanced diet, nutritious food...” [1] (p.614) . During weight loss, a high quality diet delivers essential nutrients for a minimal energy cost, so food choice is critical. Healthy food choices form the basis of dietetic advice, but in reality, the balance between consumption of healthy foods and others remains a problem. Evidence supporting the relative influence of different food categories on diet quality would be informative for practice.