Increasing plant protein in the diet induces changes in the plasma metabolome that may be beneficial for metabolic health. A randomized crossover study in males.

Background & Aim: Dietary shifts replacing animal protein (AP) with plant protein (PP) sources have been associated with lowering cardiometabolic risk (CMR), but underlying mechanisms are poorly characterized. This nutritional intervention aims to characterize the metabolic changes induced by diets containing different proportions of AP and PP sources in males at CMR.

Design: This study is a 4-week, crossover, randomized, controlled-feeding trial in which 19 males with CMR followed two diets providing either 36 % for the control diet (CON-D) or 64 % for the flexitarian diet (FLEX-D) of total protein intake from PP sources.

Dietary pattern trajectories in French adults of the NutriNet-Santé cohort over time (2014-2022): role of socio-economic factors.

Despite the urgent need for plant-based dietary shifts, few studies have examined current diet trajectories using longitudinal data. This study analyzed dietary transitions of French adults over 8 years (2014-2022), assessing diet quality and the role of various socio-economic factors. Consumption data from 17 187 NutriNet-Santé cohort participants, weighted for the French Census, were collected via FFQ in 2014, 2018 and 2022.

Exploring Multidimensional and Within-Food Group Diversity for Diet Quality and Long-Term Health in High-Income Countries.

Dietary diversity is a crucial component of healthy eating patterns because it ensures nutritional adequacy. Yet, concerns have been raised about the potential risks of its increase, which may reflect excessive consumption of unhealthy foods and higher obesity or cardiometabolic risk, particularly in high-income countries. However, the links between dietary diversity and different health outcomes remain inconclusive because of methodological differences in assessing dietary diversity.

Clinical and biochemical responses to treatment of uncomplicated severe acute malnutrition: a multicenter observational cohort from the OptiDiag study.

Background: Severe acute malnutrition (SAM) can be diagnosed using weight-for-height Z-score (WHZ) and/or mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC). Although some favor using MUAC alone, valuing its presumed ability to identify children at greatest need for nutritional care, the functional severity and physiological responses to treatment in children with varying deficits in WHZ and MUAC remain inadequately characterized.

Objective: We aimed to compare clinical and biochemical responses to treatment in children with 1) both low MUAC and low WHZ, 2) low MUAC-only, and 3) low WHZ-only.

Alignment between greenhouse gas emissions reduction and adherence the EAT-Lancet diet: A modeling study based on the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

The potential of the EAT-Lancet reference diet, which promotes a healthy diet within planetary limits, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions (GHGe) remains understudied. This study examines the role of nutritional and acceptability constraints in reducing GHGe through diet optimization, and tests the alignment between GHGe reduction and the EAT-Lancet score. The study used data from 29,413 NutriNet-Santé participants to model French diets and evaluate their environmental, nutritional, economic, and health impact.

In Healthy Pathways of Dietary Changes, a Very Rapid Reduction of Red Meat Is Possible, but Specific Diet Changes Are Required for Full Reduction-A Graph-Based Analysis.

Background: Although reducing meat consumption is becoming increasingly popular in Western countries, such a transition to a sustainable diet may pose some nutritional risks.

Objectives: We aim to analyze the pathways for reaching a low-meat healthy diet and the changes in other food categories needed to rapidly decrease total red meat consumption.

Methods: We used a recently developed method based on graph theory to represent all possible pathways of stepwise changes that avoid nutritional deficiencies toward a target healthy diet.

Plasma Metabolome Analysis Suggests That L-Arginine Supplementation Affects Microbial Activity Resulting in a Decrease in Trimethylamine N-oxide-A Randomized Controlled Trial in Healthy Overweight Adults with Cardiometabolic Risk Factors.

Background: The effects of supplementation with L-arginine (L-arg), the precursor of nitric oxide (NO), on vascular and cardiometabolic health have largely been explored. Whether other mechanisms of the action of L-arg exist remains unknown, as arginine metabolism is complicated.

Objective: We aimed to characterize the effect of low dose L-arg supplementation on overall human metabolism both in a fasting state and in response to an allostatic stress.

Environmental pressures and pesticide exposure associated with an increase in the share of plant-based foods in the diet.

Diets rich in plant-based foods are encouraged for human health and to preserve resources and the environment but the nutritional quality and safety of such diets is debated. This study aimed to model nutritionally adequate diets with increasing plant food content and to characterise the derived diets using a multicriteria approach including, nutrients intake, environmental pressures and exposure to pesticides. Using data of the NutriNet-Santé cohort (N = 29,413), we implemented stepwise optimization models to identified maximum plant-food content under nutritional constraints.

Identifying the most Efficient Detailed Trajectories toward Healthy Diets-A Graph-Based Analysis.

Background: Much effort has been devoted to defining healthy diets, which could lower the burden of disease and provide targets for populations. However, these target diets are far removed from current diets, so at best, the population is expected to move slowly along a trajectory.

Objective: Our aim was to characterize the different possible trajectories toward a target diet and identify the most efficient one for health to point out the first dietary changes being the most urgent to implement.

Plant to animal protein ratio in the diet: nutrient adequacy, long-term health and environmental pressure.

Background: Animal and plant protein sources have contrasting relationships with nutrient adequacy and long-term health, and their adequate ratio is highly debated.

Objective: We aimed to explore how the percentage of plant protein in the diet (%PP) relates to nutrient adequacy and long-term health but also to environmental pressures, to determine the adequate and potentially optimal %PP values.

Methods: Observed diets were extracted from the dietary intakes of French adults (INCA3, n = 1,125).

Compared with Milk Protein, a Wheat and Pea Protein Blend Reduces High-Fat, High-Sucrose Induced Metabolic Dysregulations while Similarly Supporting Tissue Protein Anabolism in Rats.

Background: Plant proteins (PPs) have been associated with better cardiovascular health than animal proteins (APs) in epidemiological studies. However, the underlying metabolic mechanisms remain mostly unknown.

Objectives: Using a combination of cutting-edge isotopic methods, we aimed to better characterize the differences in protein and energy metabolisms induced by dietary protein sources (PP compared with AP) in a prudent or western dietary context.

Plant-based meat substitutes are useful for healthier dietary patterns when adequately formulated - an optimization study in French adults (INCA3).

Purpose: We studied to what extent plant-based meat substitutes could improve the nutritional adequacy and healthiness of dietary patterns, depending on their nutrient composition.

Methods: From diets observed in French adults (INCA3, n = 1125), modeled diets were identified by allowing various dietary changes, between and within food categories, when two plant-based meat substitutes were made available: an average substitute (from 43 market substitutes) and a theoretical nutritionally designed substitute, fortified or not with zinc and iron at 30% or 50% of Nutrient Reference Values. Under each scenario, healthier but acceptable modeled diets were identified using multi-criteria optimization, by maximizing a health criteria related to Dietary Guidelines while minimizing deviation from the observed diets, under constraints for nutrient adequacy.

Nutritional issues and dietary levers during gradual meat reduction - A sequential diet optimization study to achieve progressively healthier diets.

Background & Aims: Reducing meat consumption is a current trend and a strong prospect for the future in Western countries, but its dietary modalities and nutrient challenges remain poorly documented. Using diet optimization under a broad set of constraints, we tried to identify a sequential meat reduction transition and analyze its nutrient issues and dietary levers.

Methods: Based on the consumption of French adults (INCA3, n = 1 125, 18-64 years old), we modeled a transition towards a nutritionally adequate healthy dietary pattern under the constraint of a gradual reduction in meat consumption in successive 10% steps.

Nutritionally adequate and environmentally respectful diets are possible for different diet groups: an optimized study from the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Background: Research has shown that vegetarian diets have a low environmental impact, but few studies have examined the environmental impacts and nutritional adequacy of these diets together, even though vegetarian diets can lead to nutritional issues.

Objectives: Our objective was to optimize and compare 6 types of diets with varying degrees of plant foods (lacto-, ovolacto-, and pescovegetarian diets and diets with low, medium, and high meat content) under nutritional constraints.

Methods: Consumption data in 30,000 participants were derived from the French NutriNet-Santé cohort using an FFQ.

Investigating the Postprandial Metabolome after Challenge Tests to Assess Metabolic Flexibility and Dysregulations Associated with Cardiometabolic Diseases.

This review focuses on the added value provided by a research strategy applying metabolomics analyses to assess phenotypic flexibility in response to different nutritional challenge tests in the framework of metabolic clinical studies. We discuss findings related to the Oral Glucose Tolerance Test (OGTT) and to mixed meals with varying fat contents and food matrix complexities. Overall, the use of challenge tests combined with metabolomics revealed subtle metabolic dysregulations exacerbated during the postprandial period when comparing healthy and at cardiometabolic risk subjects.

The potential effects of meat substitution on diet quality could be high if meat substitutes are optimized for nutritional composition-a modeling study in French adults (INCA3).

Purpose: While consumer demand for meat substitutes is growing, their varied composition raises questions regarding their nutritional value. We aimed to identify and characterize the optimal composition of a meat substitute that would best improve diet quality after complete meat replacement.

Methods: From an average individual representing the dietary intake of French adults (INCA3, n = 1125), meat was replaced with an equivalent amount of a mostly pulse-based substitute, whose composition was based on a list of 159 possible plant ingredients and optimized non-linearly to maximize diet quality assessed with the PANDiet score (considering adequacy for 32 nutrients), while taking account of technological constraints and applying nutritional constraints to limit the risk of overt deficiency in 12 key nutrients.

Modeled healthy eating patterns are largely constrained by currently estimated requirements for bioavailable iron and zinc-a diet optimization study in French adults.

Background: Healthier dietary patterns involve more plant-based foods than current Western diets rich in animal products containing high amounts of bioavailable iron and zinc. Little consideration is given to the bioavailability of iron and zinc when studying healthy eating patterns.

Objectives: Our aim was to determine whether currently estimated requirements for bioavailable iron and zinc limit the identification of healthier dietary patterns.

A Scoping Review: Metabolomics Signatures Associated with Animal and Plant Protein Intake and Their Potential Relation with Cardiometabolic Risk.

The dietary shift from animal protein (AP) to plant protein (PP) sources is encouraged for both environmental and health reasons. For instance, PPs are associated with lower cardiovascular and diabetes risks compared with APs, although the underlying mechanisms mostly remain unknown. Metabolomics is a valuable tool for globally and mechanistically characterizing the impact of AP and PP intake, given its unique ability to provide integrated signatures and specific biomarkers of metabolic effects through a comprehensive snapshot of metabolic status.

Clinical and Biochemical Markers of Risk in Uncomplicated Severe Acute Malnutrition.

Background And Objectives: Use of mid-upper arm circumference (MUAC) as a single screening tool for severe acute malnutrition (SAM) assumes that children with a low weight-for-height score (WHZ) and normal MUAC have lower risks of morbidity and mortality. However, the pathophysiology and functional severity associated with different anthropometric phenotypes of SAM have never been well characterized. We compared clinical characteristics, biochemical features, and health and nutrition histories of nonedematous children with SAM who had (1) low WHZ only, (2) both low WHZ and low MUAC, or (3) low MUAC only.

Conservative to disruptive diets for optimizing nutrition, environmental impacts and cost in French adults from the NutriNet-Santé cohort.

Improving the sustainability of diets requires the identification of diets that meet the nutritional requirements of populations, promote health, are within planetary boundaries, are affordable and are acceptable. Here we explore the extent to which dimensions of sustainability could be optimally aligned and identify more sustainable dietary solutions, from the most conservative to the most disruptive, among 12,166 participants of the NutriNet-Santé cohort. We aim to concomitantly lower environmental impacts (including greenhouse gas emissions, cumulative energy demand and land occupation), increase organic food consumption and study departure from observed diets (considered as a proxy for acceptability).

Development and evaluation of a new dietary index assessing nutrient security by aggregating probabilistic estimates of the risk of nutrient deficiency in two French adult populations.

Although micronutrient deficiencies affect 2 billion people worldwide, no index focuses on measuring the risk of overt nutrient deficiency. We aimed to develop an index that could capture the nutrient dimension of nutritional security, a nutrient security index (named SecDiet), and evaluate its apparent validity. The SecDiet (range: 0-1) is based on the square-weighted average of the probabilities that the intake of twelve critical nutrients exceeds the threshold value associated with a risk of overt deficiency.