Plant-Protein Diversity Is Critical to Ensuring the Nutritional Adequacy of Diets When Replacing Animal With Plant Protein: Observed and Modeled Diets of French Adults (INCA3)
There is a current trend in Western countries toward increasing the intake of plant protein. A higher plant-protein intake has been associated with nutritional and health benefits, but these may depend on the pattern of plant-protein sources.
Objective:
We hypothesized that the diversity of plant foods could be important to nutrient adequacy when increasing plant-protein intake in the diet.
Methods:
Using data on 1341 adults (aged 18–64 y) from a representative French national dietary survey conducted in 2014–2015 (the third Individual and National Study on Food Consumption Survey—INCA3), we studied the links between plant-protein intake, dietary diversity (using various dimensions), and nutrient adequacy [assessed using the PANDiet (Probability of Adequate Nutrient Intake) scoring system, comprising adequacy (AS) and moderation (MS) subscores]. We simulated substituting plant-protein foods for animal-protein foods using different models of plant-protein diversity.
Results:
We found that overall diet quality was weakly associated with total and protein diversity and more strongly with plant-protein diversity. Plant-protein intake was inversely associated with animal-protein intake, and positively with the PANDiet and MS, but not with the AS. Plant-protein intake displayed little diversity, mostly taking the form of grains (61% of plant-protein intake), and this diversity was even less marked under a higher plant-protein intake. Finally, modeled substitutions showed that reducing animal-protein intake increased the MS (by 32%) in a similar manner whichever plant protein was used for substitution, whereas it decreased the AS (by 20%) unless using a highly diversified plant-protein mix. These simulated improvements in overall adequacy included marked decreases in adequacy regarding certain nutrients that are typically of animal origin.
Conclusions:
We conclude that in French adults the current pattern of plant-protein intake is hindering the nutritional benefits of a transition toward more plant protein, indicating that the consumption of plant-protein-based foods other than refined grains should be encouraged.
Keywords:
plant protein
animal protein
diet quality
nutrient adequacy
dietary diversity
food substitution
Abbreviations used:
APF
animal-protein food
AS
adequacy subscore
BI
Berry-Index
INCA3
third Individual and National Study on Food Consumption Survey
JD
Jaccard distance
MS
moderation subscore
PANDiet
Probability of Adequate Nutrient Intake
PF
protein food
PPF
plant-protein food
Cited by (0)
The authors reported no funding received for this study.
Author disclosures: MS's PhD fellowship is currently being funded in part by a research contract with Terres Univia, the French Interbranch organization for plant oils and proteins. FM is the scientific leader of this contract. The other authors report no conflicts of interest. .