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Table 3 Scoring criteria for the construction of the MedPyramid score (from Tong et al. [14])

From: Nordic diet, Mediterranean diet, and the risk of chronic diseases: the EPIC-Potsdam study

Component

Recommended intakea

Score of 0a

Score of 1a

Vegetablesb

≥ 6 /d

0 /d

≥ 6 /d

Legumesb

≥ 2 /wk

0 /wk

≥ 2 /wk

Fruitsc

3–6 /d

0 /d

3–6 /d

Nutsc

1–2 /d

0 /d

1–2 /d

Cerealsc

3–6 /d

0 /d

3–6 /d

Dairyc

2 /d

0 /d

1.5–2.5 /d

Fishb

≥ 2 /wk

0 /wk

≥ 2 /wk

Red meate

˂ 2 /wk

≥ 4 /wk

˂ 2 /wk

Processed meate

≤ 1 /wk

≥ 2 /wk

≤ 1 /wk

White meatc

2 /wk

0 /wk

1.5–2.5 /wk

Eggc

2–4 /wk

0 /wk

2–4 /wk

Potatoese

≤ 3 /wk

≥ 6 /wk

≤ 3 /wk

Sweetse

≤ 2 /wk

≥ 4 /wk

≤ 2 /wk

Alcohold

10–50 g/d for men, 5–25 g/d for women

> 50 g/d for men, > 25 g/d for women

10–50 g/d for men, 5–25 g/d for women

Olive oilf

Principal source of dietary lipids

Non-consumers

Consumers

  1. aAll recommendations are in number of servings per day or per week and we used continuous scoring for all components, except for olive oil and alcohol
  2. bFor those components for which a high consumption was recommended, continuous scores from 0 to 1 were assigned proportionally from no consumption to meeting the recommended level of consumption
  3. cFor components for which moderate consumption was recommended, we assigned a score of 1 for consumption within the recommended levels and 0 for no consumption, with consumption levels in between scored proportionately; overconsumption (double the mid-point value of the recommended intake) was penalized and received a maximum score of 0.5, with consumption between the recommended level and the penalty point scored proportionally
  4. dFor alcohol, we assigned a score of 1 for consumption levels within recommendation, non-consumption was scored 0.5 while overconsumption was scored 0
  5. eFor those components for which a low consumption was recommended, consumption below the recommended levels was assigned a score of 1 and double the recommended levels were assigned a score of 0; levels in between scored proportionally
  6. fFor olive oil, all non-consumers were scored 0 and all consumers 1