Increasing Plant-Based Meat Alternatives and Decreasing Red and Processed Meat in the Diet Differentially Affect the Diet Quality and Nutrient Intakes of Canadians

• Published in: Nutrients Vol. 12; no. 7; p. 2034
• Main Authors: Vatanparast, Hassan, Islam, Naorin, Shafiee, Mojtaba, Ramdath, D Dan
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Switzerland MDPI AG 09-07-2020; MDPI
• Subjects: Adolescent; Adult; Canada; Canada’s food guide; Canadians; Child; Cholesterol; Computer simulation; Cyanocobalamin; Diet; diet modeling; Diet Surveys; Diet, Vegetarian; Dietary Fiber - administration & dosage; Dietary intake; Disease; Emissions; Energy; Energy Intake; Ethnicity; Female; Folic acid; Health risks; Humans; Legumes; Magnesium; Male; Marital status; Meat; Meat Products; Micronutrients; Micronutrients - administration & dosage; Middle Aged; Models, Theoretical; Mortality; Nutrients; Nutrients - administration & dosage; Nutrition; Nutrition research; Nutritive Value; Nuts; planetary health diet; Plant-based foods; plant-based meat alternatives; Polls & surveys; Population; protein intake; Proteins; Quality; red and processed meat; Sociodemographics; Vitamin B12; Vitamins; Young Adult; Zinc; Canada; diet modeling; red and processed meat; planetary health diet; protein intake; plant-based meat alternatives; Canada’s food guide
• ISSN: 2072-6643; 2072-6643
• DOI: 10.3390/nu12072034

Current evidence suggests a link between red and processed meat consumption and the risk of various cancers and other health outcomes. Using national survey data from the Canadian Community Health Survey (CCHS)-Nutrition 2015, we aimed to model a dietary scenario to assess the potential effects of increasing the intake of currently consumed plant-based meat alternatives by 100% and decreasing the consumption of red and processed meat by 50% on the diet quality and nutrient intakes of Canadians (≥1 year). This dietary scenario had no significant impact on dietary energy intake (
> 0.05), but resulted in a significant increase in the dietary intakes of fibre, polyunsaturated fatty acids, magnesium, and dietary folate equivalents (
< 0.05). On the other hand, this dietary scenario was accompanied by a significant decrease in protein (from 77.8 ± 0.6 g to 73.4 ± 0.6 g), cholesterol, zinc, and vitamin B12 intake (
< 0.05). Further, based on Nutrient Rich Food (NRF) scores, the overall nutritional value of the simulated diet was higher than the baseline diet. Our modeling showed that the partial replacement of red and processed meat with plant-based alternatives improves overall diet quality but may adversely affect the intake of some micronutrients, especially zinc and vitamin B12.