Individual characteristics associated with changes in the contribution of plant foods to dietary intake in a French prospective cohort

Rebalancing meat and legume consumption: change-inducing food choice motives and associated individual characteristics in non-vegetarian adults

BACKGROUND

A shift toward more plant-based foods in diets is required to improve health and to reduce environmental impact. Little is known about food choice motives and associated characteristics of those individuals who have actually reduced their consumption of animal-based foods. The aim of this cross-sectional study was to identify change-inducing motives related to meat and legume consumptions among non-vegetarians. The association between change-inducing motives and individual characteristics was also studied.

METHODS

This study included 25,393 non-vegetarian participants in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort (77.4% women, mean age 55.4 ± 13.9 y.). The motives related to the declared change in meat and legume consumptions (e.g., taste, environment, social pressure) were assessed by an online questionnaire in 2018. For each motive, respondents could be classified into three groups: no motive; motive, not change-inducing; change-inducing motive. Associations between change-inducing motives and individual characteristics were evaluated using multivariable polytomic logistic regressions. Characteristics of participants who rebalanced their meat and legume consumptions were also compared to those who reduced their meat but did not increase their legume consumption.

RESULTS

Motives most strongly declared as having induced a change in meat or legume consumptions were health and nutrition (respectively 90.7 and 81.0% declared these motives as change-inducing for the meat reduction), physical environment (82.0% for meat reduction only) and taste preferences (77.7% for legume increase only). Other motives related to social influences, meat avoidance and meat dislike were reported by fewer individuals, but were declared as having induced changes in food consumption. Most motives that induced a meat reduction and a legume increase were more likely to be associated with specific individual characteristics, for example being a woman or highly educated for health motives.

CONCLUSIONS

Besides the motives reported as important, some motives less frequently felt important were declared as having induced changes in meat or legume consumptions. Change-inducing motives were reported by specific subpopulations. Public campaigns on health and sustainability could usefully develop new tools to reach populations less willing to change.

TRIAL REGISTRATIONS

The study was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT03335644).

Are recent dietary changes observed in the NutriNet-Santé participants healthier and more sustainable?

PURPOSE

While intensive modern food systems have significant unfavourable impacts on health and the environment, new sustainable food consumption trends have been emerging in recent years. This study identified recent dietary trends over a 4-year period in terms of overall dietary patterns and organic foods consumption and associated socio-demographic determinants.

METHODS

Food intakes were assessed among 18,108 participants of the NutriNet-Santé cohort in 2014 and 2018. A food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate organic and conventional food consumption. Change in food consumption, quality of the diet (assessed by the adherence to the French national guidelines), plant-based diet using published scores, organic food intake were evaluated in regard with various socio-demographic factors. The paired student t test to compare dietary intake and the Kruskal-Walllis test to consider socio-demographic characteristics were used.

RESULTS

Consumption of meat and processed meat decreased respectively by 5.09 g/day (SD 51.15) and 1.12 g/day (SD 26.05). The average total consumption of organic products increased by 12% (+ 93 g/day) while consumption of organic fish and seafood (- 1.4 g/day), poultry (- 1 g/day), processed meat (- 0.3 g/day) and meat (- 3.3 g/day) decreased. The dietary towards healthier diets was more pronounced in certain population subgroups. For example, females, young individuals and postgraduate participants were more likely to increase their consumption of healthful plant and animal-based foods, organic foods and to improve the overall nutritional quality of their diets during the follow-up period than their counterparts.

CONCLUSION

Our results indicate a slight inflexion towards healthier and plant-based diets over a 4-year period at least in some segments of the population. A decrease in the consumption of animal products and an increase in the consumption of healthful plant-based foods and organic foods suggests a potential trend towards more sustainable diets among certain subgroups. The environmental impacts of these changes need to be assessed in further works as well as the way to sustain and improve them, in particular those who do not initiate sustainable transition.

Conservative to disruptive diets for optimizing nutrition, environmental impacts and cost in French adults from the NutriNet-Santé cohort

Improving the sustainability of diets requires the identification of diets that meet the nutritional requirements of populations, promote health, are within planetary boundaries, are affordable and are acceptable. Here we explore the extent to which dimensions of sustainability could be optimally aligned and identify more sustainable dietary solutions, from the most conservative to the most disruptive, among 12,166 participants of the NutriNet-Santé cohort. We aim to concomitantly lower environmental impacts (including greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand and land occupation), increase organic food consumption and study departure from observed diets (considered as a proxy for acceptability). From the most conservative to the most disruptive scenario, optimized diets were gradually richer in fruits, vegetables and soya-based products and markedly poorer in animal-based foods and fatty and sweet foods. The contribution of animal protein to total protein intake gradually decreased by 12% to 70% of the observed value. The greenhouse gas emissions from food production for the diets gradually decreased across scenarios (as a percentage of observed values) by 36-86%, land occupation for food production by 32-78% and energy demand by 28-72%. Our results offer a benchmark of scenarios of graded dietary changes against graded sustainability improvements.

Vegetarianism and other eating practices among youth and young adults in major Canadian cities

Objective:

To estimate the prevalence and sociodemographic characteristics of youth and young adults in major Canadian cities with self-reported vegetarian dietary practices and examine efforts to alter their diets.

Design:

Data were collected in autumn 2016 via web-based surveys. Respondents reported vegetarian dietary practices (vegan, vegetarian or pescatarian) and efforts in the preceding year to consume more or less of several nutrients, food groups and/or foods with particular attributes. Logistic regression models examined sociodemographic correlates of each vegetarian dietary practice and differences in other eating practices by diet type.

Setting:

Participants were recruited from five major Canadian cities.

Participants:

Youth and young adults, aged 16–30 years (n 2566).

Results:

Overall, 13·6 % of respondents reported vegetarian dietary practices: 6·6 % vegetarian, 4·5 % pescatarian and 2·5 % vegan. Sex, race/ethnicity, self-reported frequency of using the Nutrition Facts table and health literacy were significantly correlated with self-reported vegetarian dietary practice (P < 0·01 for all). Efforts to consume more fruits and vegetables (66·8 %) and protein (54·8 %), and less sugar (61·3 %) and processed foods (54·7 %), were prevalent overall. Respondents with vegetarian dietary practices were more likely to report efforts to consume fewer carbohydrates and animal products, and more organic, locally produced, ethically sourced/sustainably sourced/fair trade and non-GM foods (P < 0·01 for all), compared with those without these reported dietary practices.

Conclusions:

Nearly 14 % of the sampled youth and young adults in major Canadian cities reported vegetarian dietary practices and may be especially likely to value and engage in behaviours related to health-conscious diets and sustainable food production.