Tag: nutrition

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Diet and NutritionTags :

Added Potassium Salt Substitute Greatly Cuts CVD Risk

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Replacing table salt with a low-sodium, added potassium ‘salt substitute’ significantly reduces rates of stroke, heart attack and death, one of the largest dietary intervention studies ever conducted.

Presented at the European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris, and simultaneously published in the New England Journal of Medicine, the results also showed that there were no harmful effects from the salt substitute, such as hyperkalaemia.

High sodium intake and low potassium intake are widespread. Both are linked to hypertension and increased risks of stroke, heart disease and premature death. Using a salt substitute – where part of the sodium chloride is replaced with potassium chloride – addresses both problems at once. Salt substitutes are known to lower blood pressure but their effects on heart disease, stroke, and death were unclear, until now.

Lead researcher, Professor Bruce Neal of The George Institute for Global Health, said that the benefit could prevent millions of early deaths with the widespread adoption of salt substitutes.

“Almost everyone in the world eats more salt than they should.  Switching to a salt substitute is something that everyone could do if salt substitutes were on the supermarket shelves,’’ he said.

“Better still, while salt substitutes are a bit more expensive than regular salt, they’re still very low-cost – just a few dollars a year to make the switch.”

“As well as showing clear benefits for important health outcomes, our study also allays concerns about possible risks.  We saw no indication of any harm from the added potassium in the salt substitute.  Certainly, patients with serious kidney disease should not use salt substitutes, but they need to keep away from regular salt as well,” added Professor Neal.

The Salt Substitute and Stroke Study enrolled 21 000 adults with either a history of stroke or poorly controlled blood pressure from 600 villages in rural areas of China from 2014 to 2015.

Participants in intervention villages were provided enough salt substitute to cover all household cooking and food preservation requirements – a daily amount of 20g per person. Those in the other villages continued using regular salt.

Over five years’ average follow up, more than 3000 participants had a stroke. Use of salt substitute reduced stroke risk by 14 percent, total cardiovascular events (strokes and heart attacks combined) by 13 percent and premature death by 12 percent.

Professor Neal said that as salt substitutes are relatively cheap (US$1.62 per kg vs US$1.08 per kg for regular salt in China), they are likely very cost effective.

“Last year, a modelling study done for China suggested that about 400 000 premature deaths might be prevented each year by national uptake of salt substitute. Our results now confirm this. If salt was switched for salt substitute worldwide, there would be several million premature deaths prevented every year,” he said.    

“This is quite simply the single most worthwhile piece of research I’ve ever been involved with. Switching table salt to salt substitute is a highly feasible and low-cost opportunity to have a massive global health benefit.”

As a result of the study, George Institute researchers are calling for salt manufacturers to embrace salt substitution, the promotion of salt substitutes by governments, and the use of substitute salt by consumers.

Source: George Institute for Global Health

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

Weight Loss in 80% Following Series of Different Diets

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In a study testing three successive and varying diets, nearly 80 percent of participants in a lost a “clinically significant” amount of body weight in less than two years.

The participants adhered to a sequence of a calorie-restrictive diet, a low-carb/high-fat diet and an intermittent fasting diet, losing 11.1 kilograms on average.

The results were published in the journal Nutrition.

“Almost 80 percent of participants lost a clinically significant amount of weight,” said study leader Rebecca Christensen, a PhD candidate at the Dalla Lana School of Public Health. “This is important because losing just five percent of your body weight is associated with improvements in cardiometabolic function and other health concerns.

“That lets us know that we have a lot of different tools in the toolbox to pick from when initiating a dietary intervention.”

Christensen says that staying on the same diet can be tough, which is why she is pleased that the study’s findings suggest there may be an alternative.

“It can be quite hard for patients to maintain dietary interventions,” she said. “This might be where successive diets have an advantage as changing things up makes it easier to stick to a diet.”

As more people attempt to shed their pandemic weight, Christensen said she also found that there is no right month to start your diet. Rather, it is just about getting started, adding that reaching a very low body mass index (BMI) need not be the goal.

“We know that that’s not necessarily feasible,” she said. “But the very least they are reaching the weight that we know is beneficial for their health which is why we want to do the intervention.”

Source: University of Toronto

Categories : Cardiovascular Disease Diet and NutritionTags :

Gut Microbiome Moderates BP Benefits of Flavonoids

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Flavonoid-rich foods, such as berries, apples, pears and wine, seem to reduce hypertension due in part to characteristics of the gut microbiome, according to a new study published in Hypertension.

“Our gut microbiome plays a key role in metabolising flavonoids to enhance their cardioprotective effects, and this study provides evidence to suggest these blood pressure-lowering effects are achievable with simple changes to the daily diet,” said lead researcher Aedín Cassidy, PhD, chair and professor in nutrition and preventive medicine at the Institute for Global Food Security at Queen’s University.

Flavonoids are compounds found naturally in fruits, vegetables and plant-based foods such as tea, chocolate and wine. They have miscellaneous favourable biochemical and antioxidant effects associated with various diseases such as cancer, Alzheimer’s disease, atherosclerosis, etc. Flavonoids are broken down by the body’s gut microbiome. Recent studies found a link between gut microbiota, the microorganisms in the human digestive tract, and cardiovascular disease (CVD). Gut microbiota are highly individual, and seem to be associated with CVD.

With studies suggesting flavonoids may reduce heart disease risk, the researchers investigaged the role of the gut microbiome in this. 
Researchers drew on a group of 904 adults between the ages of 25 and 82, 57% men from Germany’s PopGen biobank. Researchers evaluated the participants’ food intake, gut microbiome and blood pressure levels together with other clinical and molecular phenotyping at regular follow-up examinations.

Participants’ intake of flavonoid-rich foods during the previous year was calculated from a self-reported food questionnaire detailing the frequency and quantity eaten of 112 foods.

Participants’ gut microbiomes were assessed by faecal bacterial DNA in stool samples. After an overnight fast, participants’ blood pressure levels were measured. Researchers also collected participants’ lifestyle information, and measured BMI and other physical characteristics,

The analysis found that:

  • Study participants with the highest intake of flavonoid-rich foods, including berries, red wine, apples and pears, had lower systolic blood pressure levels, as well as greater gut microbiome diversity than the participants with the lowest levels of flavonoid-rich food intake.
  • Up to 15.2% of the association between flavonoid-rich foods and systolic blood pressure could be explained by the diversity found in participants’ gut microbiome.
  • Eating 1.6 servings of berries per day (one serving = 80 grams, or 1 cup) was associated with an average reduction in systolic blood pressure levels of 4.1 mm Hg. 12% of the association was explained by gut microbiome factors.
  • Drinking 2.8 glasses (125 ml of wine per glass) of red wine a week was associated with an average of 3.7 mm Hg lower systolic blood pressure level, of which 15% could be explained by the gut microbiome.

“Our findings indicate future trials should look at participants according to metabolic profile in order to more accurately study the roles of metabolism and the gut microbiome in regulating the effects of flavonoids on blood pressure,” said Cassidy. “A better understanding of the highly individual variability of flavonoid metabolism could very well explain why some people have greater cardiovascular protection benefits from flavonoid-rich foods than others.”

While this study suggests potential benefits to consuming red wine, the American Heart Association suggests that if you don’t drink alcohol already, you shouldn’t start.

Study limitations include not being able to account for all factors, such as genetics and lifestyle. The authors noted the focus of this study was on specific foods rich in flavonoids, not all food and beverages with flavonoids.

Source: Medical Xpress

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

Extra Vitamin D Does not Boost Muscles

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Vitamin D supplementation does not have beneficial effects on muscle function, strength, or mass, according to a new meta-analysis, and may even have detrimental effects on muscle strength in people with normal levels of the vitamin.

Vitamin D deficiency, causes a generalised decrease in bone mineral density, resulting in osteopenia and osteoporosis. In young children who have little mineral in their skeleton, this defect results in a variety of skeletal deformities classically known as rickets. It is also believed to cause muscle weakness; affected children have difficulty in standing and walking, whereas the elderly have increasing sway and more frequent falls,thereby increasing their risk of fracture.

The analysis, which is published in the Journal of Bone and Mineral Research, included 54 trials involving 8747 individuals. Overall, no benefits of vitamin D over placebo were observed for improving muscle health. On the contrary, vitamin D appeared to have detrimental effects in terms of increased time spent performing what’s called the Timed Up and Go test, a decrease in maximum strength at knee flexion, and a tendency towards a reduced score of the Short Physical Performance Battery.

“Care should be taken recommending vitamin D supplementation to improve muscle strength and function in people with normal or only slightly impaired vitamin D status,” said lead author Lise Sofie Bislev, MD, PhD, of Aarhus University Hospital, in Denmark. “We need to study further whether it may benefit muscles in those with severe vitamin D deficiency, however.”

Source: Wiley

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

WHO Vitamin C Guidelines from World War II Study Challenged

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Researchers have re-analysed a landmark study on Vitamin C conducted during World War II, which informed the WHO’s recommended daily amount, finding the amount to be half that actually required.

When food was scarce during World War II, gruelling experiments were conducted in Britain to determine the bare minimums of food and water that were required for health and survival, and how to prioritise the allocation of food.

One of the more robust experiments run on human subjects during this time in Britain, which has had long-lasting public health consequences, was a vitamin C depletion study started in 1944. This medical experiment involved 20 subjects, most of whom were conscientious objectors living in a building in Sorby where many similar experiments were conducted. They were overseen by a future Nobel Prize winner, and detailed data was kept on each participant in the study.

“The vitamin C experiment is a shocking study,” said Philippe Hujoel, lead author of a new analysis of the Sorby vitamin C experiment, a practicing dentist and professor of oral health sciences in the UW School of Dentistry. “They depleted people’s vitamin C levels long-term and created life-threatening emergencies. It would never fly now.”

Despite two participants developing life-threatening heart problems from the vitamin C depletion, Hujoel added, none of the subjects were permanently harmed, and later many indicated they would participate again.

Due to vitamin C shortages, they wanted to be conservative with the supplies, explained Hujoel, who is also an adjunct professor of epidemiology. The goal of the Sorby investigators was not to determine the required vitamin C intake for optimal health; it was to find out the minimum vitamin C requirements for preventing scurvy.

Vitamin C is important for wound healing because scar tissue formation depends on collagen, which needs vitamin C. In addition to knitting skin back together, collagen also maintains the integrity of blood vessel walls, thus protecting against stroke and heart disease.

In the Sorby trial, researchers assigned participants to zero, 10 or 70 milligrams a day for an average of nine months. The depleted subjects were then repleted and saturated with vitamin C. Experimental wounds were made during this depletion and repletion. The scar strength of these experimental wounds was a measure of adequate vitamin C levels since poor wound healing, in addition to such conditions as bleeding gums, is indicative of scurvy.

The Sorby researchers concluded that 10 milligrams a day was enough to ward off signs of scurvy. Partly based on this, the WHO recommends 45 milligrams a day. Hujoel said that the re-analyses of the Sorby data suggest that the WHOrecommendation is too low to prevent weak scar strength.

In a bit of scientific detective work, Hujoel said he tracked down and reviewed the study’s data, and with the aid of Margaux Hujoel, a scientist with Brigham and Women’s Hospital/Harvard Medical School, put the data through modern statistical techniques designed to handle small sample sizes, techniques not available to the original scientists. They published their findings in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.

The Hujoels found that the data from this unique study, which formed a cornerstone for dietary recommendations worldwide, needed more than just being assessed with the ‘eyeball method’.

“It is concluded that the failure to reevaluate the data of a landmark trial with novel statistical methods as they became available may have led to a misleading narrative on the vitamin C needs for the prevention and treatment of collagen-related pathologies,” the researchers wrote.

“Robust parametric analyses of the (Sorby) trial data reveal that an average daily vitamin C intake of 95 mg is required to prevent weak scar strength for 97.5% of the population. Such a vitamin C intake is more than double the daily 45 mg vitamin C intake recommended by the WHO but is consistent with the writing panels for the National Academy of Medicine and (other) countries,” they added.

The Hujoels’ study also found that recovery from a vitamin C deficiency is lengthy, requiring higher levels of vitamin C. Even an average daily dose of 90 milligrams a day of vitamin C for six months failed to restore normal scar strength for the depleted study participants.

Source: University of Washington

Categories : Diet and Nutrition Metabolic DisordersTags :

Low GI Diet Has Noticeable Benefit against Diabetes

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Following a low glycaemic diet confers small but important benefits in blood glucose levels, cholesterol, weight and other risk factors, according to a study published by The BMJ.

The improvements were over and above existing drug and insulin therapy, suggesting this diet may help complement treatment, said the researchers.

Research has shown that foods with a low glycaemic index (GI), which is a measure of how quickly a food affects blood glucose levels relative to white bread, can help keep blood sugar levels steady and reduce the risk of heart disease in people with diabetes. These include foods such as vegetables, most fruits, pulses and wholegrains.

Due to this, clinical guidelines across the world recommend a low GI or GL (glycaemic load) diet for people with diabetes. However, the last European Association for the Study of Diabetes (EASD) guidelines were released over 15 years ago and since that time a number of trials have been published.
So researchers set out to summarise the effect of low GI/GL dietary patterns on blood sugar control and other known risk factors in diabetes to help inform the update of the EASD guidelines for nutrition treatment.

Their results are based on 27 randomised controlled trials published up to May 2021 investigating the effect of diets with low GI/GL in diabetes for three or more weeks.

The trial recruited a total of 1617 participants with type 1 or 2 diabetes, who were predominantly middle aged, overweight or obese with moderately controlled type 2 diabetes treated with drugs or insulin.

Though the trials varied quality, the researchers could assess the certainty of evidence using the recognised GRADE system.

The results show that low-GI/GL dietary patterns were linked to small but clinically meaningful reductions in blood sugar levels (HbA1c) compared with higher-GI/GL control diets.

Some other risk factors saw changes, such as fasting glucose (blood sugar levels after a period of fasting), LDL cholesterol, body weight, and C-reactive protein (a chemical associated with inflammation), but not blood insulin levels, HDL cholesterol, waist circumference, or blood pressure. The certainty of evidence was high for reduction in blood sugar levels and moderate for most other outcomes.

Limitations that included imprecision in the evidence for the effect of low GI/GL dietary patterns on LDL cholesterol and waist circumference, and the small number of available trial comparisons for blood pressure and inflammatory markers.

However, they say their findings show that low GI/GL dietary patterns “are considered an acceptable and safe dietary strategy that can produce small meaningful reductions in the primary target for glycaemic control in diabetes, HbA1c, fasting glucose, and other established cardiometabolic risk factors.”

“Our synthesis supports existing recommendations for the use of low GI/GL dietary patterns in the management of diabetes,” they concluded.

Source: MedicalXpress

Categories : COVID Diet and NutritionTags :

Could Nutritional Supplements Play a Role in Fighting COVID?

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Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash
Photo by Diana Polekhina on Unsplash

Researchers suggest that nutritional supplements such as Vitamin C do play a role in reinforcing the immune system against SARS-CoV-2.

An article in Advances in Experimental Medicine and Biology lays out the scientific rationale and possible benefits — as well as possible drawbacks — of several dietary supplements currently in clinical trials related to COVID-19 treatment. The article was written by Johns Hopkins Medicine gastroenterologist Gerard Mullin, MD, and colleagues.

Dr Mullin, associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, and his colleagues shine a light on melatonin, vitamin C, vitamin D, zinc and several plant-based compounds, such as green tea and curcumin. For instance, the authors explained that vitamin C (ascorbic acid), “contributes to immune defense by supporting cell functions of both the innate and adaptive immune systems.”

The authors discuss in the journal article the mechanism of action of each of the supplements works, how each could benefit a patient with COVID.

Zinc is well tolerated, and well known for its antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, immunomodulatory, and antiviral activities, the latter possibly mediated by its ability to inhibit RNA virus replication, thereby protecting cells from viral infection, oxidative damage, and dysfunction. It has been shown “to inhibit coronavirus RNA replication.” They also noted that, when administered at symptom onset, zinc “can reduce the duration of symptoms from illness attributed to more innocuous coronavirus infections, such as the common cold.”

Finally, Dr Mullin and colleagues gave short summaries of the clinical trials underway to test each supplement’s effectiveness in fighting COVID.

Regarding Vitamin D, which has received a lot of attention with regard to COVID outcomes, Dr Mullin said that, “to date, there are abundant data associating low vitamin D status to higher vulnerability to COVID-19 and poor clinical outcomes.”

The authors however struck a note of caution in that “any benefit of dietary supplements against COVID-19 depends on results of randomised controlled trials” and peer-reviewed literature.

Source: John Hopkins Medicine

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

Meat Substitutes Don’t Offer the Same Nutrition as Meat

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A study comparing meat and plant-based burger patties has found significant differences in nutritional content.  

As plant-based foods have improved in quality and availability, some have achieved a taste and texture remarkably similar to real beef, and they may even seem nutritionally equivalent in terms of items such as vitamins, fats and protein, based on their nutritional information labels.

But a Duke University research team’s deeper examination of the nutritional content of plant-based meat alternatives, using an analysis known as ‘metabolomics,’ shows they’re still quite different.  

Manufacturers of meat substitutes have gone to great trouble to make their plant-based products as meaty as possible, such as adding leghemoglobin, a plant-derived iron-carrying molecule to simulate bloodiness. Indigestible fibres like methyl cellulose thicken the texture of the meat substitutes. And to bring the plant-based meat alternatives up to the protein levels of meat, they use isolated plant proteins. Some meat-substitutes also add vitamin B12 and zinc to further replicate meat’s nutrition.

However, many other components of nutrition do not appear on the labels, and that’s where the products differ widely from meat, according to the study, which appears this week in Scientific Reports.

The metabolites that the scientists measured are building blocks of the body’s biochemistry, crucial to the conversion of energy, signaling between cells, building structures and tearing them down, and a host of other functions. There are expected to be more than 100 000 of these molecules in biology and about half of the metabolites circulating in human blood are estimated to be derived from our diets.

“To consumers reading nutritional labels, they may appear nutritionally interchangeable,” said Stephan van Vliet, a postdoctoral researcher at the Duke Molecular Physiology Institute who led the research. “But if you peek behind the curtain using metabolomics and look at expanded nutritional profiles, we found that there are large differences between meat and a plant-based meat alternative.”

The researchers compared 18 samples of a popular plant-based meat alternative to 18 grass-fed ground beef samples from a ranch in Idaho. The analysis of 36 carefully cooked patties found that 171 out of the 190 metabolites they measured varied between beef and the plant-based meat substitute.

The beef contained 22 metabolites that the plant substitute did not, while the plant-based substitute contained 31 metabolites that meat did not. The greatest distinctions occurred in amino acids, dipeptides, vitamins, phenols, and types of saturated and unsaturated fatty acids found in these products.

A number of important metabolites were found only in beef, or in greater quantities, including creatine, spermine, anserine, cysteamine, glucosamine, squalene, and the omega-3 fatty acid DHA. “These nutrients have potentially important physiological, anti-inflammatory, and or immunomodulatory roles,” the authors wrote in the paper.

“These nutrients are important for our brain and other organs including our muscles” van Vliet said. “But some people on vegan diets (no animal products), can live healthy lives – that’s very clear.” Besides, the plant-based meat alternative contained several beneficial metabolites not found in beef such as phytosterols and phenols.

“It is important for consumers to understand that these products should not be viewed as nutritionally interchangeable, but that’s not to say that one is better than the other,” said van Vliet, who eats a plant-heavy diet which still includes meat. “Plant and animal foods can be complementary, because they provide different nutrients.”

More research is needed, he said, to determine whether the presence or absence of particular metabolites in meat and plant-based meat alternatives have any short- or long-term effects.

No funding was received to perform this work.

Source:  Duke University School of Nursing

Categories : Ageing Diet and NutritionTags :

Sense of Smell Loss Uneven in Elderly

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Contrary to previously held scientific belief, the declining sense of smell in older people is not uniform, and their liking of many smells remains the same. Researchers at the University of Copenhagen reached this conclusion after examining a large group of older Danes’ and their intensity perception of common food odours.

The decline in smell has been demonstrated scientifically. Sense of smell gradually begins to decline from about the age of 55, and 75% of those over 80 show major olfactory impairment. While it was previously believed that one’s sense of smell broadly declined with increasing age, a study from the University of Copenhagen reports that certain food odours are significantly more affected than others.

Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge and her fellow researchers tested the ability of older Danes to perceive everyday food odours. The researchers measured how intensely older adults perceived different food odours — as well as how much they liked the odours.

“Our study shows that the declining sense of smell among older adults is more complex than once believed. While their ability to smell fried meat, onions and mushrooms is markedly weaker, they smell orange, raspberry and vanilla just as well as younger adults. Thus, a declining sense of smell in older adults seems rather odor specific. What is really interesting is that how much you like an odour is not necessarily dependent on theintensity perception,” observed Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

For example, liking seemed to be largely unaffected for fried meat, onions and mushrooms, despite the largest decline in intensity perception was seen for these specific odors. The ability to smell coffee declined, among other things, though they didn’t like the aroma of coffee to the same degree as younger adults.

The test subjects included 251 Danes between the ages of 60 and 98 and a younger group consisting of 92 people between the ages of 20 and 39.

Everyday food odours

Instead of using odours of chemical origin, which is commonly the procedure when testing the sense of smell, Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge developed a test kit including 14 natural food odours familiar from everyday life, including bacon, onions, toast, asparagus, coffee, cinnamon, orange and vanilla. The odours, mainly made from essential oils, were presented to participants by sniffing sticks.

The food odours were chosen based upon commonly consumed foods and dishes that older people often eat and enjoy most according to meal plans and surveys from a Danish catering company that provides food for the elderly.

What’s the story?

The researchers can only speculate as to why the declining sense of smell in older adults seems to be odours specific, especially for savoury food smells and why, in some cases, liking is largely unaffected. 

“This may be due to the fact that these are common food odours in which saltiness or umami is a dominant taste element. It is widely recognised that salty is the basic taste most affected by aging. Since taste and smell are strongly associated when it comes to food, our perception of aroma may be disturbed if one’s taste perception of saltiness is impaired to begin with,” Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge suggested.

Nutriton and quality of life

The researchers hope that their findings will help improve nutrition for the elderly. While the sense of smell is important for stimulating appetite and our serotonin levels as well, according to Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge, their study demonstrates that the sensitivity of one’s sense of smell need not be decisive — participants’ liking of certain foods remained unchanged.

“Our results show that as long as a food odour is recognisable, its intensity will not determine whether or not you like it. So, if one wants to improve food experiences of older adults, it is more relevant to pay attention to what they enjoy eating than it is to wonder about which aromas seem weaker to them,” concluded Eva Honnens de Lichtenberg Broge.

Source: University of Copenhagen – Faculty of Science

Journal information: de Lichtenberg Broge, E.H., et al. (2021) Changes in perception and liking for everyday food odors among older adults. Food Quality and Preference. doi.org/10.1016/j.foodqual.2021.104254.

Categories : Diet and NutritionTags :

Scientists Search for Ways to Make Plant-based Protein Tastier and Healthier

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As the demand for meat continues to increase around the world, a paper in the new Nature journal, Science of Food, that explores the topic of ways to create healthier, better-tasting and more sustainable plant-based protein products that mimic animal-based foods. 

It’s no simple task, said lead author of the article, renowned food scientist David Julian McClements, University of Massachusetts Amherst Distinguished Professor.

“With Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods and other products coming on the market, there’s a huge interest in plant-based foods for improved sustainability, health and ethical reasons,” said  McClements, a leading expert in food design and nanotechnology, and author of Future Foods: How Modern Science Is Transforming the Way We Eat.

It’s a growing industry: in 2019, the US plant-based food market was valued at nearly $5 billion, with 40.5% of sales in the milk category and 18.9% in plant-based meat products. That reflects a growth in market value of 29% from 2017.

“A lot of academics are starting to work in this area and are not familiar with the complexity of animal products and the physicochemical principles you need in order to assemble plant-based ingredients into these products, each with their own physical, functional, nutritional and sensory attributes,” McClements said.

With funding from the USDA’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture and the Good Food Institute, McClements is leading a multidisciplinary team at UMass Amherst that is discovering how to design better plant-based protein. Co-author Lutz Grossmann, who recently joined the UMass Amherst food science team as an assistant professor, has expertise in alternative protein sources, McClements noted.

“Our research has pivoted toward this topic,” McClements said. “There’s a huge amount of innovation and investment in this area, and I get contacted frequently by different startup companies who are trying to make plant-based fish or eggs or cheese, but who often don’t have a background in the science of foods.”

While the plant-based food sector is growing to meet consumer demand, Prof McClements noted in the paper that “a plant-based diet is not necessarily better than an omnivore diet from a nutritional perspective.”

In order to provide the micronutrients that are naturally present in animal meat, milk and eggs, plant-based products have to be fortified with vitamin D, calcium, zinc and others. Adequate amounts of micronutrients are needed for, among other things, the proper functioning of the immune system. Meat-free diets presently increase risks for fractures and other conditions, although they have other considerable health benefits.

Plant-based foods also need to be digestible and provide the full complement of essential amino acids.

McClements said that many of the current generation of highly processed, plant-based meat products are unhealthy because they contain large amounts of of saturated fat, salt and sugar. But, he added, ultra-processed foods do not necessarily have to be unhealthy.

“We’re trying to make processed food healthier,” McClements explained. “We aim to design them to have all the vitamins and minerals you need and have health-promoting components like dietary fiber and phytochemicals so that they taste good and they’re convenient and they’re cheap and you can easily incorporate them into your life. That’s the goal in the future, but we’re not there yet for most products.”

To tackle these challenges, McClements said, the UMass Amherst team of scientists is taking a holistic, multidisciplinary approach.

Source: University of Massachusetts Amherst

Journal information: McClements, D. J & Grossmann, L., (2021) A brief review of the science behind the design of healthy and sustainable plant-based foods. npj Science of Food. doi.org/10.1038/s41538-021-00099-y