Individual Diet Optimization in French Adults Shows That Plant-Based “Dairy-like” Products May Complement Dairy in Sustainable Diets

Abstract

This study aimed to explore the potential role of plant-based “dairy-like” products (PBDL) in sustainable diets. For each individual from a representative sample of French adults (INCA2 survey 2006–2007; n = 1816), a diet optimized to be more sustainable (nutritionally adequate while having a 30% reduced carbon impact with minimal change from the actual diet and isocaloric content) was modelled. The food content of the optimized diets was compared to actual diets, with a focus on PBDL and dairy products. The presented quantitative results focused on women. Optimized diets contained more plant-based products and less meats than actual diets. PBDL products were present in 7.3% and 55.7% of the subjects’ actual and optimized diets, respectively, increasing significantly from 7 to 48 g/day. Regarding dairy products, cheese decreased (−14 g/day), milk increased (+14 g/day), and yogurt remained constant (87 g/day) between the actual and optimized diets, such that the intake of this food group remained constant (214 g/day). Women for whom PBDL products were introduced as new foods in their optimized diets were found to be those with actual low energy intake (1755 kcal/d on average). As a complement to dairy products, fortified PBDL products may help to achieve more sustainable diets, especially for individuals with low energy intakes.

Shifting towards optimized healthy and sustainable Dutch diets: impact on protein quality

“…Several studies performed diet optimization techniques based on combining food items [ 19 , 47 , 48 ]. For example, the Dutch diet was optimized based on quadratic optimization of food items, by minimizing the deviance from the average baseline diet while satisfying nutritional goals and remaining below GHGE targets [ 19 ].…”

40:60: The optimal ratio between animal and plant-based proteins for health and environment

“…37 found that food-based strategies like forti cation, bioforti cation and dietary diversi cation can improve micronutrient intake. Thus, adding future foods and food forti cation to our suite of dietary options can have a bene cial effect on land use and GHG emissions when transitioning towards more plant-based diets, yet these were not included in this study 39,40 .…”

Diet Optimization for Sustainability: INDIGOO, an Innovative Multilevel Model Combining Individual and Population Objectives

“…Our innovative multilevel approach called Individual Diet Including Global Objectives Optimization (INDIGOO) was compared with the individual-based optimization approach previously used [14,15], called Individual-Based Diet Optimization (IBDO) here. With the IBDO approach, one model was run separately for each individual, leading to a set of models (one model per individual) for which all parameters (decision variable, constraints, and objective function) were set at the individual level.…”

“…Horgan et al (2016) [14] applied optimization at the individual level to dietary data from the United Kingdom (UK) to simulate a maximal dietary GHGEs reduction while complying with nutritional recommendations and staying as close as possible to the individual observed diet. More recently, Gazan et al (2021) [15] proposed an individual-based optimization approach to data from the French population to identify the role of plant-based dairy-like products in nutritionally adequate diets with a 30% dietary GHGEs reduction. Optimization at the individual level enables statistical analyses that are useful for understanding whether significant dietary changes are required; it also increases cultural acceptability by staying as close as possible to each observed diet and accounts for personal nutritional requirements.…”