Designing Nutritionally Adequate and Climate-Friendly Diets for Omnivorous, Pescatarian, Vegetarian and Vegan Adolescents in Sweden Using Linear Optimization

Abstract

Low-carbon diets can counteract climate change and promote health if they are nutritionally adequate, affordable and culturally acceptable. This study aimed at developing sustainable diets and to compare these with the EAT-Lancet diet. The Swedish national dietary survey Riksmaten Adolescents 2016–17 was used as the baseline. Diets were optimized using linear programming for four dietary patterns: omnivores, pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans. The deviation from the baseline Riksmaten diet was minimized for all optimized diets while fulfilling nutrient and climate footprint constraints. Constraining the diet-related carbon dioxide equivalents of omnivores to 1.57 kg/day resulted in a diet associated with a reduction of meat, dairy products, and processed foods and an increase in potatoes, pulses, eggs and seafood. Climate-friendly, nutritionally adequate diets for pescatarians, vegetarians and vegans contained fewer foods and included considerable amounts of fortified dairy and meat substitutes. The optimized diets did not align very well with the food-group pattern of the EAT-Lancet diet. These findings suggest how to design future diets that are climate-friendly, nutritionally adequate, affordable, and culturally acceptable for Swedish adolescents with different dietary patterns. The discrepancies with the EAT diet indicate that the cultural dietary context is likely to play an important role in characterizing sustainable diets for specific populations.

Developing a novel optimisation approach for keeping heterogeneous diets healthy and within planetary boundaries for climate change

“…The nutritious and health-promoting diets in models TotPop, Classic, NutRich and LowClim were up to 24% lower in GHGE compared to baseline diets. The reduced climate impact from achieving nutritional and health goals aligns with ndings from previous research [10,12,42,43]. Yet, our study also shows that switching to a diet meeting only DRVs and the Swedish FBDGs is not su cient to keep the climate impact of Swedish diets below the IPCC-suggested CO 2 eq threshold.…”

The carbon footprint of Italian schools meals: An optimal choice of dishes in vegan, vegetarian, and omnivorous menus

“…Moreover, the results are in line with the observational studies on the adult population made in France ( 8 ) (using a food frequency questionnaire over about 29,000 participants), the UK ( 32 ) (using a food frequency questionnaire over about 55,500 participants aged 20–79), and Italy ( 33 ) (using a 7-days dietary record over 153 participants), in which the environmental impacts of different diets with different levels of animal product consumption were compared. Similar results were obtained by designing diet plans using linear programming ( 34 , 35 ). In particular, the diet plans are obtained by minimizing their deviation from a reference/current diet while fulfilling nutrient and climate footprint constraints.…”

Analysis of S-Adenosylmethionine and S-Adenosylhomocysteine: Method Optimisation and Profiling in Healthy Adults upon Short-Term Dietary Intervention

“…We undertook an analysis of SAM and SAH in adult healthy subjects transitioning from an omnivore to either a vegan or a meat-rich diet. An increasing number of individuals are transitioning toward plant-based dietary patterns worldwide [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Regardless of personal motivations, which may include mitigation of climate change and food insecurity, animal welfare, and health improvement, the study of metabolism and disease prevention in such dieters has gained growing interest, especially in pediatric and adolescent populations [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”

“…As part of the methionine cycle, SAM synthesis and metabolism are dependent on the consumption of essential nutrients, such as methionine, folic acid, and cobalamin, whose intakes vary between diets. A growing number of people are transitioning toward plant-based diets worldwide [ 27 , 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 ]. Whether their motivations include mitigation of climate change and food insecurity, animal welfare, health improvement, or other, the study of how nutrition impacts metabolism in such dieters has gained renewed interest, both in adult and paediatric populations [ 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 ].…”