Journal Articles
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://mro.massey.ac.nz/handle/10179/7915
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Item Diet affordability: a key dimension in the assessment of sustainable food systems and healthy diets(Frontiers Media S.A., 2024-08-12) Chungchunlam SMS; Moughan PJ; Raubenheimer DA promulgated global shift toward a plant-based diet is largely in response to a perceived negative environmental impact of animal food production, but the nutritional adequacy and economic implications of plant-sourced sustainable healthy dietary patterns need to be considered. This paper reviews recent modeling studies using Linear Programming to determine the respective roles of animal- and plant-sourced foods in developing a least-cost diet in the United States and New Zealand. In both economies, least-cost diets were found to include animal-based foods, such as milk, eggs, fish, and seafood, to meet the energy and nutrient requirements of healthy adults at the lowest retail cost. To model a solely plant-based least-cost diet, the prevailing costs of all animal-sourced foods had to be increased by 1.1 to 11.5 times their original retail prices. This led to the inclusion of fortified plant-based foods, such as fortified soymilk, and a plant-based diet that was considerably (34–45%) more costly. The first-limiting essential nutrients were mostly the vitamins and minerals, with special focus on pantothenic acid, zinc, and vitamin B-12, when transitioning from an animal- and plant-containing least-cost diet to a plant-only based least-cost diet. Modeled least-cost diets based on contemporary food costs include animal-sourced foods, at least for developed high-income US and NZ food economies, and potentially for developing low- and middle-income countries, such as Indonesia. Modeling of least-cost diets that consist exclusively of plant-based foods is feasible, but at a higher daily diet cost, and these diets are often close to limiting for several key nutrients. Diet affordability, as a key dimension of sustainable healthy diets, and the respective economic roles of animal- and plant-sourced foods need to be considered.Item Using Linear Programming to Determine the Role of Plant- and Animal-Sourced Foods in Least-Cost, Nutritionally Adequate Diets for Adults(Oxford University Press on behalf of the American Society for Nutrition, 2021-11) Chungchunlam SMS; Garrick DP; Moughan PJBACKGROUND: The respective roles of plant- and animal-sourced foods in sustainable healthy diets for humans remain unclear. Nutritional quality and the monetary cost of diets are key criteria among others for sustainable food production. OBJECTIVE: Linear programming (LP) was used to determine the composition of nutritionally adequate dietary patterns formulated at the lowest cost. The hypothesis tested was that animal-sourced foods would be included in least-cost diets due to their high density of particular essential nutrients. METHODS: The LP modeling work was based on eating patterns, retail food prices (2020), and the daily energy (11,150 kJ, 2665 kcal) and essential nutrient requirements (29 nutrients in total) of a reference adult in New Zealand (NZ). The LP modeling approach is publicly and freely available to readily illustrate the change in dietary profiles and daily diet cost, in the simulation of changes in energy and nutrient requirements, and price fluctuations within food groups. RESULTS: A nutrient-adequate, least-cost dietary pattern formulated from 883 foods, with a daily cost of NZ $3.23, included both animal- and plant-based foods. The nutrients found to be equally first-limiting were biotin, calcium, molybdenum, potassium, selenium, vitamin A, pantothenic acid, and vitamin C. When a dietary scenario with no animal-sourced foods was modeled, by increasing the retail prices of animal-sourced foods by 1.05 to 10.3 times, the daily cost of this plant-only dietary pattern was NZ $4.34. Additional nutrients, such as zinc, vitamin B-12, and vitamin D, were met at their daily minimum required levels. CONCLUSIONS: Dietary patterns formulated at the lowest cost and meeting the daily minimum requirements for energy and essential nutrients for an adult in New Zealand relied on foods sourced from animals and plants.