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

Abstract

Purpose To reduce the environmental impact of Western diets, a reduction of meat consumption and a substitution by plant-based protein sources is needed. This protein transition will affect the quantity and quality of dietary protein. Therefore, the aim of this study was to evaluate the protein adequacy of diets optimized for nutritional health and diet-related greenhouse gas emission (GHGE). Methods Data from 2150 adult participants of the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey were used, with diet assessed using two non-consecutive 24 h dietary recalls. Utilizable protein of current diets per day was based on meal composition and the Protein Digestibility-Corrected Amino Acid Score and was compared to protein requirements. Optimized diets were derived as linear combinations of current diets that minimized GHGE and maximized the Dutch Healthy Diet 2015 score, with/without constraints to keep dietary change within 33% of current consumption. Protein adequacy was evaluated in both current and optimized diets. Results In all age and gender strata, the healthiest diets had higher GHGE, the most sustainable diets had the lowest dietary quality, though higher than current diets, and protein adequacy remained sufficient. When limiting dietary change to 33% of current consumption, in the most promising trade-off diet GHGE was reduced by 12–16%. The current diet provided 1.4–2.2 times the required amount of utilizable protein. Conclusion These results suggest that a realistic aim for the next decade might be to reduce diet-related GHGE to 12–16% of the current levels without compromising protein adequacy and diet quality. To achieve global targets, upstream food system transformations are needed with subsequent dietary changes.

The complementarity of nutrient density and disease burden for Nutritional Life Cycle Assessment

“…This focus is also applicable to low-income countries where current diets suffer from nutrient inadequacy (Han et al, 2022). In this regard, some studies have shown that there is a point to which health and environmental impact can be improved simultaneously when current diets are far for optimal, while the trade-offs between health and environment appear mainly when it comes to marginal changes within diets (Stylianou et al, 2021;Heerschop et al, 2023). Moreover, the synergic environmental and health benefit from a reduction of animal source foods is also dependent on the functional unit used, e.g., water use in our study is relatively high for 100 kcal of fruits and vegetables, and will even be higher when expressed on protein content, but when expressed on a mass base, these food groups perform relatively well (Sokolow et al, 2019).…”

Toward healthy and sustainable diets for the 21st century: Importance of sociocultural and economic considerations

“…Other approaches circumvent this problem by considering a priori defined omnivorous, vegetarian, or vegan dietary regimens ( 69 ). More recent models addressed food preference, food choice, and cultural acceptability by incorporating costs ( 70 , 71 ), taste, and texture ( 72 ), constraining the deviation from current dietary patterns ( 73 ), or making linear combinations of whole diets ( 68 , 74 ). Approaches that rely on currently existing dietary patterns have the advantage of realism and greater acceptability; conversely, however, they cannot identify radically different solutions that go beyond the current food consumption, composition, and production system.…”

The Potential of Food Fortification as an Enabler of More Environmentally Sustainable, Nutritionally Adequate Diets

“…In comparison to foods from animal sources, plant-based foods such as legumes, nuts, and plant-based alternatives are typically low in saturated fats and rich in unsaturated fatty acids, dietary fiber, and phytonutrients such as polyphenols [14]. A (partial) replacement of animal products with plant-based foods may provide beneficial health outcomes, such as a reduced risk of type II diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, and premature mortality [12,15,16]. Plant-based foods also generally provide more thiamin, vitamin C, Nutrients 2023, 15, 2473 2 of 14 folate, and potassium than animal products [15].…”

“…A (partial) replacement of animal products with plant-based foods may provide beneficial health outcomes, such as a reduced risk of type II diabetes, cancer, coronary heart disease, and premature mortality [12,15,16]. Plant-based foods also generally provide more thiamin, vitamin C, Nutrients 2023, 15, 2473 2 of 14 folate, and potassium than animal products [15]. On the other hand, animal foods are essential sources of macro-and micronutrients that are difficult to obtain from plant-based foods [14].…”

“…On the other hand, animal foods are essential sources of macro-and micronutrients that are difficult to obtain from plant-based foods [14]. Plant-based foods and diets often have a lower quality [15] and content [16] of protein; choline; vitamins B2, B3, B5, B6, and D; iodine; selenium; and bioavailable calcium, iron, and zinc; and lack vitamin B12 and long-chain omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids, eicosapentaenoic, and docosahexaeonoic acids (EPA and DHA) [17][18][19][20][21][22][23]. Therefore, large shifts from animal-to plant-based diets will lead to nutritional advantages but also shortcomings [20,24,25].…”