Transdisciplinary research toinform and shape dietary policies, interventions and the plant-based food environment

Research Line: Preserving Health / Seed Call: i4PH Oktober 2024

Current diets heavily reliant on animal-based proteins harm both public and planetary health, making a shift to plant-based and alternative proteins—termed the “protein transition”—urgent. The Dutch government aims to increase plant-based protein consumption from 43% to 50% by 2030, with the Dutch Health Council advocating for 60% to achieve sustainable, healthier diets without increasing nutrient deficiencies.

While plant-based diets can reduce risks of kidney and vascular diseases, their health effects, particularly across different socioeconomic groups, are not well understood. Novel plant-based foods, though high in fiber, often contain additives and are ultra-processed, raising concerns about their impacts. Vulnerable populations, especially lower socioeconomic groups, face greater risks of diet-related health disparities, as current increases in plant-based consumption are concentrated among higher socioeconomic groups. Stronger policies and interventions are needed to reshape the food environment and ensure the transition supports sustainable, healthy, and equitable diets. Multidisciplinary research is crucial to guide policymakers, industry, and consumers.

Objectives and Route to Impact

The projects long-term goals are to:

• Deepen our understanding of optimal plant-based dietary strategies to shape a sustainable protein transition which will safeguard the long-term kidney and vascular health of men and women with different ages, socioeconomic settings and health status.
• Drive health equity promoting interventions, policies, guidelines, food (re)formulations and food choices, by informing and engaging with diverse stakeholders, including policy makers, industry, health care and consumers.
• Promote healthy, sustainable and just diet choices in lower socioeconomic and vulnerable groups, by developing interventions and (digital) tools.
• Develop policy recommendations to inform on optimal strategies for achieving healthy, sustainable and just diets among people from different socioeconomic groups.

Methods and Devliverables

To address critical knowledge gaps, the project will focus on the following:

• Health effects of plant-based substitutes: Investigating the largely unknown impacts of plant-based meat and dairy substitutes, which are gaining popularity in diets.
• Impact of diet diversity on health disparities: Examining how contemporary plant-based diets affect kidney and vascular health across different socioeconomic positions, ages, sexes, and pre-existing health conditions to reduce inequities.
• Socioeconomic influences on dietary choices: Understanding how food environments, policies, and social factors shape healthy and sustainable food choices in various socioeconomic groups, ensuring the protein transition addresses health disparities.
• Personalized tools for vulnerable groups: Designing and implementing personalized interventions and digital tools to promote healthy plant-based choices, improving health and self-efficacy for those most in need.

The project combines traditional and novel study designs in a multidisciplinary approach. It will integrate data from ecological footprints, food costs, and population cohorts using advanced techniques to analyze the effects of plant-based diets on kidney-vascular health disparities. Citizen science trials will assess the impact of plant-based substitutes on health and well-being, engaging low socioeconomic groups to collect personal health data using wearables and apps. Mixed-methods research will explore the root causes of dietary inequalities to inform targeted interventions.

Contribution to Cross-EWUU Collaboration

The team consists of members from four departments across three institutes (WUR, TU/e, UU), bringing together a diverse range of expertise and career stages to enhance cross-EWUU collaborations. They specialize in areas such as nutritional epidemiology, kidney-vascular health, wearable technology, machine learning, personalized nutrition, sustainability, socioeconomic health disparities, policy, and social psychology. This diversity fosters synergy, allowing us to address the complex challenges of improving population diets effectively.

Team

• Marinka Steur (PI) – WUR Nutrition and Disease (Human Nutrition and Health)
• Sanne Djojosoeparto – WUR Consumption and Healthy Lifestyles (Social Sciences)
• Shauna O’Donovan – TU/e Department of Biomedical Engineering
• Tina Venema – UU Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development
• Marianne Geleijnse – WUR Nutrition and Disease (Human Nutrition and Health)
• Gerda Pot – Alliantie Voeding in de Zorg