title: The Latin American laws of correct nutrition: Review, unified interpretation, model and tools.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The "Laws of Correct Nutrition": the Law of Quantity, the Law of Quality, the Law of Harmony and the Law of Adequacy, provide the basis of a proper diet, i.e. one that provides the body with the energy required and nutrients it needs for daily activities and maintenance of vital functions. For several decades, these Laws have been the basis of nourishing menus designed in Latin America; however, they are stated in a colloquial language, which leads to differences in interpretation and ambiguities for non-experts and even experts in the field.
  
  
  METHODS
  We present a review of the different interpretations of the Laws and describe a consensus. We represent concepts related to nourishing menu design employing the Unified Modeling Language (UML). We formalize the Laws using the Object Constraint Language (OCL). We design a nourishing menu for a particular user through enforcement of the Laws.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We designed a domain model with the essential elements to plan a nourishing menu and we expressed the necessary constraints to make the model׳s behavior conform to the four Laws. We made a formal verification and validation of the model via USE (UML-based Specification Environment) and we developed a software prototype for menu design under the Laws.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Diet planning is considered as an art but consideration should be given to the need for a set of strict rules to design adequate menus. Thus, we model the "Laws of Nutrition" as a formal basis and standard framework for this task.
authors.affiliation: División Académica de Informática y Sistemas, Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, 86690 Cunduacán, Tabasco, México. Electronic address: oscar.chavez@ujat.mx.
authors.forename: Oscar
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Chávez-Bosquez
authors.affiliation: División Académica de Informática y Sistemas, Universidad Juárez Autónoma de Tabasco, 86690 Cunduacán, Tabasco, México. Electronic address: pilar.pozos@ujat.mx.
authors.forename: Pilar
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Pozos-Parra
mesh_terms: D005523:Food Supply / Q000191:economics / Q000331:legislation & jurisprudence*; D006801:Humans; D007843:Latin America; D008962:Models, Theoretical
keywords: Diet planning; Domain model; Laws of Nutrition; Menu planning; Model validation; Object Constraint Language (OCL); Software; Unified Modeling Language (UML)