Alternative proteins in low- and middle-income countries (LMIC) face a questionable future: will technology negate Bennett's law?

Rising incomes across low-and middle-income countries (LMIC) lead to a lower consumption of starchy staples and create a growing demand for high-quality animal protein, an observation referred to as Bennett's law. This dietary shift from plant-sourced to animal-sourced proteins has also been referred to as the LMIC protein transition. At this time, there are rising concerns that current livestock production is highly resource intensive and may not meet the growing global demand for high-quality protein. Alternative plant-based proteins, derived from new technologies and often fortified with micronutrients, are intended to close the LMIC nutrient gap. However, data from LMIC suggest that the income-driven selection of animal proteins is aspirational and varies by stage of economic development. Food balance sheets from higher-income countries indicate that meat consumption peaks only at very high incomes. Will plant-based alternative proteins satisfy the growing LMIC demand for animal-sourced foods, thereby negating Bennett's law? Current evidence suggests otherwise.

Food Security and Sustainability: Discussing the Four Pillars to Encompass Other Dimensions.

The unadjusted intake of food constitutes a real challenge for the several sustainability dimensions. In this perspective, the main objectives of this research are to characterise the current contexts of food security, its relationship with sustainability, and identify proposals and actions that may support the design of more adjusted policies in the future. In addition, it is intended to assess if the food security pillars properly address the sustainability goals and if the evolution of undernutrition is accompanied by sustainable frameworks. In this way, statistical information from the FAOSTAT database was considered for the several dimensions of food security over the period 2000-2020. These data were analysed through factor-cluster approaches and panel data methodologies, namely those related to quantile regressions. As main insights, we may refer that undernutrition is more impacted by the availability of food and nutrients and political stability than by the level of GDP-Gross Domestic Product (except for the extreme cases). This means that the level of development is not the primary explanation for the problems of nutrition. The main focus of the national and international policies must be to improve the agrifood supply chains and to support political stability, in order to mitigate undernutrition worldwide and ensure a global access to sustainable and healthy diets. In addition, it is suggested to rethink the four pillars of food security (availability, access, utilisation and stability), in order to encompass other dimensions, such as climate change.

Changes in the association between the traditional Japanese diet score and suicide rates over 26 years: A global comparative study.

BACKGROUND: This study examined the global association between the Traditional Japanese Diet Score and suicide rate. METHODS: Average food supply and energy supply by country were obtained from the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations Statistics Division database (FAOSTAT). Traditional Japanese Diet Score (TJDS) was calculated from food group classifications. Age-standardized suicide rates per 100,000 people by country were obtained from the Global Burden of Disease 2017 database. The 26-year associations between TJDS and suicide rates were examined controlling for covariates using a mixed-effects model in 138 countries with populations of 1 million or greater. RESULTS: A significant negative association was found in the analysis of the relationship between TJDS and the prevalence of suicide [ß (se) = -0.126 (0.031), p < 0.001]. The interaction term between TJDS and year was also significant [ß (se) = -0.011 (0.003), p < 0.001]. The change in the effect of TJDS on suicide rates by year was examined. The effect of TJDS was not significant from 1991 to 1999 but became significant after 2000; the slope of the TJDS to suicide rate in 2017 was -0.270 (95% confidence interval -0.382, -0.169, p < 0.001). LIMITATIONS: This was a national ecological study and did not consider individual differences in sex, age, and lifestyle. CONCLUSIONS: TJDS may be is a protective factor for depression, which may prevent suicide. The association between TJDS and suicide rates became stronger over time and was inversely associated with suicide rates after 2000.

Dataset on potential environmental impacts of water deprivation and land use for food consumption in France and Tunisia.

The dataset concerns the environmental impacts of water consumption and land use caused by 1 kg of food item supplied to two Mediterranean countries: France and Tunisia. The dataset takes into account the food items available in France and Tunisia (identified in two national dietary surveys) and their origin. Water consumption and land use surfaces were extracted from existing databases and from national data for animal feed description. Up-to-date available evaluation methods were used to assess the associated impacts. The origin of ingredients was considered to compute impacts on all countries of the world. These data were used in Perignon et al., 2019 [1].

Trends in energy and nutrient supply in Ethiopia: a perspective from FAO food balance sheets.

BACKGROUND: Ethiopia is the second-most populous country in Africa. Although most people still live in rural areas, the urban population is increasing. Generally, urbanisation is associated with a nutrition transition and an increase in risk factors for non-communicable diseases (NCDs). The objective of this study was to determine how the nutritional composition of the Ethiopian food supply has changed over the last 50 years and whether there is evidence of a nutrition transition. METHODS: Food balance sheets for Ethiopia from 1961 to 2011 were downloaded from the FAOSTAT database and daily per capita supply for 17 commodity groupings was calculated. After appropriate coding, per capita energy and nutrient supplies were determined. RESULTS: Per capita energy supply was 1710 kcal/d in 1961, fell to 1403 kcal/d by 1973, and increased to 2111 kcal/d in 2011. Carbohydrate was by far the greatest energy source throughout the period, ranging from 72% of energy in 1968 to 79% in 1998; however, this was mostly provided by complex carbohydrates as the contribution of sugars to energy only varied between 4.7% in 1994 and 6.7% in 2011. Energy from fat was low, ranging from 14% of energy in 1970 to 10% in 1998. Energy from protein ranged from 14% in 1962 to 11% in 1994. Per capita supplies of calcium, vitamin A, C, D, folate and other B-vitamins were insufficient and there was a low supply of animal foods. CONCLUSIONS: The Ethiopian food supply is still remarkably high in complex carbohydrates and low in sugars, fat, protein, and micronutrients. There is little evidence yet of changes that are usually associated with a nutrition transition.

Mediterranean diet score and incidence of IHD: a global comparative study.

OBJECTIVE: The aim of the present study was to clarify the global relationship between Mediterranean diet score (MDS) and the incidence of IHD by country using international statistics. DESIGN: The incidence of IHD by country was derived from the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) database. Average supplies of food (g/d per capita) and energy (kcal/d per capita) by country, excluding loss between production and household, were obtained from the FAOSTAT database. MDS was evaluated based on the total score of nine food items that characterize the Mediterranean diet. The association between MDS and the incidence of IHD was examined in countries with a population of 1 million or greater using a general linear model controlled for socio-economic and lifestyle variables. SETTING: Population data from global international databases.ParticipantsOne hundred and thirty-two countries with a population of over 1 million. RESULTS: MDS was inversely correlated with obesity rate, ageing rate, years of education and IHD incidence; however, no associations were found with gross domestic product, life expectancy, smoking rate, energy supply or health expenditure. In the general linear model of IHD incidence by MDS controlled for socio-economic and lifestyle variables, the ß of the MDS was -26·4 (se 8·6; P<0·01). CONCLUSIONS: The results of this global international comparative study confirmed that the Mediterranean diet is inversely associated with the incidence of IHD.

EU mitigation potential of harvested wood products.

BACKGROUND: The new rules for the Land Use, Land Use Change and Forestry sector under the Kyoto Protocol recognized the importance of Harvested Wood Products (HWP) in climate change mitigation. We used the Tier 2 method proposed in the 2013 IPCC KP Supplement to estimate emissions and removals from HWP from 1990 to 2030 in EU-28 countries with three future harvest scenarios (constant historical average, and +/-20% in 2030). RESULTS: For the historical period (2000-2012) our results are consistent with other studies, indicating a HWP sink equal on average to -44.0 Mt CO2 yr-1 (about 10% of the sink by forest pools). Assuming a constant historical harvest scenario and future distribution of the total harvest among each commodity, the HWP sink decreases to -22.9 Mt CO2 yr-1 in 2030. The increasing and decreasing harvest scenarios produced a HWP sink of -43.2 and -9.0 Mt CO2 yr-1 in 2030, respectively. Other factors may play an important role on HWP sink, including: (i) the relative share of different wood products, and (ii) the combined effect of production, import and export on the domestic production of each commodity. CONCLUSIONS: Maintaining a constant historical harvest, the HWP sink will slowly tend to saturate, i.e. to approach zero in the long term. The current HWP sink will be maintained only by further increasing the current harvest; however, this will tend to reduce the current sink in forest biomass, at least in the short term. Overall, our results suggest that: (i) there is limited potential for additional HWP sink in the EU; (ii) the HWP mitigation potential should be analyzed in conjunction with other mitigation components (e.g. sink in forest biomass, energy and material substitution by wood).