Planetary Health Diet Compared to Dutch Dietary Guidelines: Nutritional Content and Adequacy.

In 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission proposed a Planetary Health Diet (PHD) to address challenges toward sustainable and healthy diets. However, its suitability within the Dutch context and a comparison with the Dutch Dietary Guidelines (DDG) needs investigation. Our study aimed to compare the PHD with DDG in terms of food groups, servings, nutritional content, and adequacy in adults. We modeled two theoretical diets, the PHD (PHD-NL) and another based on the DDG (DDG-NL), using the Dutch National Food Consumption Survey (FCS-2016) and Dutch Food Composition Database to calculate the nutritional content and compared it with the Dutch Dietary Reference Values (DRVs). The PHD included higher quantities of vegetables, fish, legumes, and nuts, while the DDG suggested more significant amounts of cereals, tubers, starchy vegetables, dairy, and red meat. We observed differences in macronutrient distribution; while both diets lacked sufficient vitamin D, calcium content was lower in the PHD-NL. The PHD-NL had higher levels of fiber, vegetable protein, unsaturated fats, and non-heme iron, while vitamins B2, B6, B12, and calcium were lower than the DDG-NL diet. The PHD-NL has nutritional adequacy in the Dutch context, except for vitamin D and calcium, although it is essential to be cautious with iron because of the bioavailability of non-heme iron in plant-based diets. These findings have implications for the adoption of a sustainable diet according to nutritional requirements, population health status, and sociocultural context, as well as compliance with specific dietary behaviors of populations.

Two cosmoses, one universe: a narrative review exploring the gut microbiome's role in the effect of urban risk factors on vascular ageing.

In the face of rising global urbanisation, understanding how the associated environment and lifestyle impact public health is a cornerstone for prevention, research, and clinical practice. Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, with urban risk factors contributing greatly to its burden. The current narrative review adopts an exposome approach to explore the effect of urban-associated physical-chemical factors (such as air pollution) and lifestyle on cardiovascular health and ageing. In addition, we provide new insights into how these urban-related factors alter the gut microbiome, which has been associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. We focus on vascular ageing, before disease onset, to promote preventative research and practice. We also discuss how urban ecosystems and social factors may interact with these pathways and provide suggestions for future research, precision prevention and management of vascular ageing. Most importantly, future research and decision-making would benefit from adopting an exposome approach and acknowledging the diverse and boundless universe of the microbiome.