Maximizing the intersection of human health and the health of the environment with regard to the amount and type of protein produced and consumed in the United States

Abstract

This review utilizes current national dietary guidelines and published databases to evaluate the impacts of reasonable shifts in the amount and type of protein intake in the United States on the intersection of human and environmental health. The established scientific basis and recommendations for protein intake as described in the US Dietary Reference Intakes are reviewed. Data on food availability from both the US Department of Agriculture and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations and data on consumption from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey are used to examine estimates of current US protein consumption. Greenhouse gas (carbon dioxide equivalents, CO 2 eq) and blue and green water impacts of US protein consumption resulting from US agricultural practices were obtained from previously published meta-analyses. A 25% decrease in protein intake paired with a 25% shift from animal food to plant food protein intake—from an 85:15 ratio to a 60:40 ratio—would best align protein intake with national dietary recommendations while simultaneously resulting in 40% fewer CO 2 eq emissions and 10% less consumptive water use. The modeling of this strategy suggests a savings of 129 billion kilograms of CO 2 eq and 3.1 trillion gallons of water relative to current consumption.

Dietary Protein and Amino Acids in Vegetarian Diets—A Review

“…In such populations, the authors corrected and standardized nutrient intake estimates to 2000 kcal/d in order to prevent this error from becoming an error in the risk of insufficient nutrient intake. Please note that this correction is probably insufficient inasmuch average energy intake, as determined by doubly labelled water studies are presumably quite higher [33]. Generally speaking, under-reporting and imperfect methods to manage under-reporting have been shown to affect estimates of nutrient intake, with overestimation of the prevalence of protein inadequacy [34].…”

“…The claim that certain plant foods are “missing” specific amino acids is demonstrably false. All plant foods contain all 20 amino acids, including the 9 indispensable amino acids [33]. Importantly, rather than “missing” indispensable amino acids, a more accurate statement would be that the amino acid distribution profile is less optimal in plant foods than in animal foods.…”

The taste of a healthy and sustainable diet: What is the recipe for the future?

“…Micronutrient deficiencies may significantly undermine our health. This is confirmed by research from all over the world (Gardner et al, 2019;Monteiro et al, 2018;Thomas, 2007;Valdes et al, 2018). To understand the health condition of an human individual, we should know more about the composition of the daily diet of that individual.…”

“…It is widely believed among both health professionals and the general population that certain plant foods are entirely devoid of specific amino acids and, thus, that protein adequacy cannot be supported by plant foods alone. In fact, all plant foods contain all 20 dietary amino acids (Gardner et al, 2019).…”

Exploring Health-Promoting Attributes of Plant Proteins as a Functional Ingredient for the Food Sector: A Systematic Review of Human Interventional Studies

“…The main challenges for the food supply systems are not only to meet this growing demand, but also to provide protein that would be of high quality, health-promoting, and sustainable. Although protein from meat, poultry, fish, dairy and eggs have optimal amino acid composition and high digestibility, the majority of large-scale animal protein production practices raise environmental concerns [2,3]. Moreover, dietary patterns characterised by frequent consumption of meat-the leading source of protein in the Western world [4]-have been associated with increased risk of cardiovascular disease, metabolic syndrome, some forms of cancers and premature mortality [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16].…”