74% of FBDG have a long-way to go to meet sustainable standards

2022 Alpro Foundation Award for best scientific publication

Anna-Lena Klapp's award winning study investigated the degree of sustainability of food-based dietary guidelines across 95 nations. Of particular focus was the inclusion of plant-based meat and dairy alternatives as well as guidance for following vegan and vegetarian diets.

Background

Despite WHO and the UN FAO calling out to all countries to adapt their food-based dietary guidelines (FBDG) to incorporate more sustainable factors, many still fall short of providing truly sustainable recommendations.

Plant-based dietary patterns with reduced (but not necessarily omitted) meat and other animal products and higher intakes of healthful plant foods (including nuts, seeds, legumes, wholegrains and fruit and vegetables) are the key recommendations for a sustainable diet. On this point, it has been noted in previous studies, that the protein group of FBDG for many countries fails to prioritize plant protein options over animal and the dairy food group does not always include plant-based alternatives.

From a behavioral change aspect, providing consumers with a direct swap to their usual choices of meat and dairy, which can be consumed in a similar way, can be a motivating factor to switch as it provides the convenience and ease.

Method

National dietary guidelines within 100 countries were qualitatively assessed for their alignment with sustainable, plant-based recommendations and whether or not they incorporated plant-based substitutes/alternatives within their guidance.

A) Inclusion of vegetarian dietary advice

The authors state within the paper that a sustainable dietary pattern does not have to avoid meat or other animal products, however, they wanted to assess whether countries provided recommendations across the broad spectrum of plant-based dietary patterns, including vegetarian diets.

B) Assessing the sustainability of FBDG using the Balanced Food Choice Index (BFCI)

The BFCI assesses the extent to which existing dietary guidelines encourage sustainable healthy food choices (with or without animal foods). The index also incorporates ethical, ecological, religious and economic aspects. It is scored on 10 indicators and 17 variables to provide a score from zero (least sustainable) to 100 (most sustainable).

C) Reference to plant-based alternatives to meat, milk and other dairy products

The authors investigated the dietary guidelines for their inclusion of plant-based alternatives within their graphic visual (e.g. the pyramid or plate) and within their text guidance.

• Meat alternatives included tofu, seitan, tempeh, textured vegetable protein, falafel and processed veggie meat

• Milk alternatives included all plant-based drinks

• Dairy alternatives included products such as plant-based alternatives to cheese and yogurt

Simple binary coding was used, allocating a score of 1 if the products were mentioned and zero if they were not mentioned.

Results

95 FBDG were analysed across the 100 countries (some countries sharing the same guidelines)

Advice on vegetarian diets

Despite only 38% of countries providing an explicit position on vegetarian diets, most accommodated by discussing animal alternatives to varying degrees within their guidelines and/or recommendations were flexible to allow for adaptions to meet different dietary and cultural needs. Only four guidelines from France, Germany, Italy, and Switzerland advised against vegan diets,

Sustainability of FBDG

Most guidelines do not encourage sustainable dietary patterns as assessed by the BFCI, with a mean score of 34 and 74% of guidelines scoring less than 50 out of a maximum100.

The top 10 countries with FBDG most aligned with sustainable dietary recommendations according to their BFCI score were:

1. Netherlands - 94

2. Australia – 89

3. Switzerland – 85

4. Qatar – 83

5. New Zealand – 82

6. UK – 80

7. Hong Kong – 78

8. USA - 75

9. Sweden – 74

10. Belgium (Flemish) – 64

Figure 1. World map of 100 countries and their mentions of plant-based alternatives within food-based dietary guidelines

The above image appeared in the article by Klapp and colleagues in the Current Developments in Nutrition journal (https://doi.org/10.1093/cdn/nzac144) (1) “Plant-based dairy” refers to plant-based milk, plant-based dairy products, or both.

Reference to plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy

45% of FBDG mention plant-based alternatives to either milk or meat. This was more often within their text guidance rather than the visual graphic representation (see Figure 2 below).

Figure 2. Proportion of 95 national dietary recommendations which mention plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy

In summary

The study adds further weight to the argument that more countries need to urgently revise their FBDG to incorporate the latest sustainable recommendations for both human and planetary health. Additionally the authors identified that despite plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy offering a more viable solution to help shift citizens’ dietary habits towards consuming less animal products, they are referenced in less than half the countries.