Our next symposium “Eating to protect our health and our planet” will be held during the 22nd IUNS  International Congress of Nutrition, in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2022. Let’s focus on the third talk, by Jess Haines (Canada).

Jess Haines (Canada)

Jess Haines, PhD, MHSc, RD is an Associate Professor of Applied Nutrition at the University of Guelph in Canada. Along with an interdisciplinary team of colleagues at the University of Guelph, she is currently testing interventions designed to promote sustainable healthy eating among families. She is also the co-Director of the Guelph Family Health Study, a longitudinal family-based cohort.
For her work, Dr. Haines received the 2020 Danone International Prize for Alimentation and was named as a member of the Royal Society of Canada College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists, which is ”Canada’s top academic honour for outstanding achievement in the arts, social sciences and sciences.”

Family-based interventions to promote sustainable healthy diets

ldentifying effective strategies to promote environmentally sustainable and healthy diets is a critical component of creating sustainable food systems. The objective of this presentation is to describe the development, implementation and evaluation of family based interventions designed to promote sustainable healthy diets.

Formative assessment with both parents and children were conducted to identify feasible and contextually-relevant intervention strategies to increase intake of plant -based proteins and reduce household food waste. These results informed the development and testing of family-based interventions focused on the promotion of sustainable healthy eating.
Findings from feasible studies among families with children aged 9-12 years suggest our intervention strategies are well accepted by families and may increase intake of plant-based protein and reduce level of household food waste. Key learnings and next steps regarding approaches to promote sustainable healthy diets will be discussed.

Our next symposium “Eating to protect our health and our planet” will be held during the 22nd IUNS  International Congress of Nutrition, in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2022. Let’s focus on the second talk, by Frans Kok (The Netherlands).

Frans Kok – Netherlands

Frans Kok is Emeritus Professor in Nutrition & Health and former head of the Division of Human Nutrition at Wageningen University, The Netherlands.

He was trained in human nutrition in Wageningen and epidemiology at Harvard University, Boston USA. Kok’s scientifi c research covers topics such as diet in disease prevention, dietary behaviour, and overweight. In emerging economies in Asia and Africa, attention is on diet and defi ciency disorders. He is author of around 350 original scientifi c publications and supervised 70 PhD graduates.

Frans Kok is editor of three nutrition textbooks ‘Personalized Nutrition – Principles and Applications’, ‘Introduction to Human Nutrition’ and ‘Biomarkers of
Dietary Exposure’.
During his career, he acted as Dean of Science of Wageningen University being responsible for the quality of the University’s academic research and postdoctoral training. Frans Kok has been member of several national and international scientifi c committees, including director of the European Nutrition Leadership Program in Luxembourg.

Balancing nutritional adequacy and environmental sustainability: what do we learn from modeling studies?

Food systems are major drivers of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water and land use, eutrophication (N, P), and biodiversity. Some supply chains are short, others are long, reaching across the globe. The EAT-Lancet commission provided a picture of healthy and sustainable diets for large global regions. However, the evidence base is still scarce on what this means on national and local level, as well as how this translates to consumers and their food choices. Thus, food categories need to be evaluated regarding health-environment-culture-cost trade-offs.

Animal products such as meat, especially beef, and dairy have a higher environmental burden than most plant products. For estimating the impact, it is important to differentiate in the type of meat (beef, pork, chicken) and dairy (milk, cheese, yogurt). Moreover, dietary change towards more sustainable diets should fulfill nutritional requirements, be cultural and socially acceptable, and affordable.
Key nutrients that require attention in more plant-based diets (flexitarians, pescatarians, vegetarians, and vegans) and affluent western diets are calcium, iodine, vitamin B12, omega-3 fatty acids, zinc, and iron. However, diets in low and middle income countries would benefit from more (micro)nutrient and protein dense foods from animal sources. Therefore, trade-offs for inclusion of foods in healthy and sustainable diets will differ between Western and non-Western countries.
To evaluate to what extent food categories can be part of sustainable diets, observational and scenario-based approaches, and modeling/optimization strategies have been used. Results indicate that dairy has a moderate impact on sustainability: an emerging payid pokies australia no deposit bonus rank order is beef, other meat (chicken, pork), (hard)cheese, milk, plant products. Daily intake of 1-2 servings of dairy may fit in sustainable and healthy diets. Yogurt and milk are of special interest, because of their nutrient richness and low fat content, but more studies are necessary to quantify their impact.

Sustainable diets can be composed in different ways. Ideally, current local dietary habits and eating cultures should be the basis for change. In future analyses, we need to increase the evidence base beyond summaries of national case studies by using optimization approaches with individual data on dietary intake. Most probably, convergence guidelines which recommend a reduction and substitution rather than elimination approach may be more effective in increasing dietary transition rates for planetary health.

Our next symposium “Eating to protect our health and our planet” will be held during the 22nd IUNS  International Congress of Nutrition, in Tokyo, Japan, in December 2022. Let’s focus on the first talk, by Janet Ranganathan (USA).

Janet Ranganathan – USA

Janet Ranganathan is the Managing Director and Executive Vice President for Strategy, Learning and Results at the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global research organization that addresses urgent sustainability challenges. She leads the development and execution of WRI’s five-year strategy and oversees WRI’s Research Integrity, Managing for Results, and Data Lab teams.
Janet Ranganathan has written on a broad range of sustainability-related topics. She is a co-author of WRI’s flagship report, creating a Sustainable Food Future. She co-founded the Greenhouse Protocol which has become the global greenhouse gas accounting and reporting standard for businesses.

Creating a Sustainable Food Future

Global human population is projected to increase to around 10 billion by 2050. As incomes rise, people increasingly consume more resource intensive foods. At the same time, we need to cut greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and stop conversion of natural ecosystems. Sustainably feeding a population of 10 billion requires closing three gaps:

1. A 56 percent food gap between crop calories produced in 2010 and those needed in 2050 under “business as usual” growth.
2. A 593-million-hectare land gap (an area nearly twice the size of India) between global agricultural land area in 2010 and expected agricultural expansion by 2050.
3. An 11-gigaton GHG mitigation gap between expected agricultural emissions in 2050 and the level needed to hold global warming below 2o°C (3.6°F).

The presentation will outline a five-course menu to address these three gaps: (1) reduce growth in demand (2) increase food production without expanding agricultural land (3) protect and restore natural ecosystems (4) increase fish supply (5) reduce GHG emissions from agricultural production. It draws on WRI’s Creating a Sustainable Food Future report and real-world examples of how the five-course menu is being put into practice.

In a recent publication, a group of scientists has explored reviewed the benefits of yogurt and probiotic fermented milk for chidren

One of them is Dr Michele Sculati(PhD), a physician and a clinical nutrition specialist. Following his teams’ scientific review, Dr Michele Sculati agreed to answer a few interesting questions on:

Yogurt and probiotic fermented milk for children : 

• Nutritional benefits of yogurt.
• Yogurt’s contribution to maintaining calcium rates and the overall quality of diets among children.
• Yogurt’s role regarding lactose digestion, metabolic profiles and gut microbiota.
• Probiotics effects on common childhood infections
• Potential protective effects against allergies

Take the time to watch it this interesting exchange :

Find below the graph presented during in the video focusing on the nutrient-density of yogurt:

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For more details and publications :

• Probiotic yogurts may be designed to target choldrens specific health issues
• How to support healthy gut in children? (infographic)
• Review supports health benefits of yogurt for tots and toddlers

Does the secret to a sparkling healthy smile lie in an everyday serving of yogurt? Latest research suggests that eating yogurt or other probiotic-containing dairy products may help protect us from tooth decay and gum disease, the main causes of tooth loss. A daily dose of dairy could be a ticket to support a healthy set of gnashers – helping to keep the dentist’s drill at bay (1).

The benefits may be achieved thanks to the ability of the probiotics in the dairy product to modify the microbiota living in our mouth, and so to interfere with the decay-causing bacteria that can lead to oral disease, the evidence suggests.

Promising results from trials with probiotics in oral health have led to a flurry of research to find the best probiotic strains, their concentration and how they should be taken.

In an overview of such studies examining the use of probiotics in dentistry around the world, the researchers concluded that probiotic dairy products could reduce dental caries and improve gum health in all ages.

Their analysis of results from 191 studies revealed that, while pharmaceutical formulas were the most used for administering probiotics, several dairy products were also used, including milk, fermented milk, yogurt, kefir, curd, and cheese. Most studies of dairy products as ‘vehicles’ for probiotics have used Lactobacillus strains of microbiota.

Probiotic dairy products may combat tooth decay and plaque

Tooth decay, or dental caries, is damage to a tooth that can happen when ‘bad’ bacteria in your mouth (Streptococcus mutans) produce acids that attack the enamel on the surface of the tooth. It’s encouraged by a sugary diet.

The research has shown that consuming probiotic dairy products could improve the oral microbiota profile and hamper the development of caries in children, adolescents, adults and elderly. The probiotic effect on dental caries is related mainly to a drop in the amount of the bacterial strain Streptococcus mutans, the studies suggest.

The probiotic organisms in the dairy products are thought to achieve this effect in several ways:

• They can colonise the mouth where they compete with mutans for nutrients, effectively starving out the harmful bacteria.
• they may stick to the tooth surface, and may form a barrier, preventing the colonisation by mutans
• they may change the acidity inside the mouth, making it a more hostile environment for mutans
• the reduce acidity may help remineralise tooth mineral structures

The benefits may be particularly good in children, as it seems that their oral microbiota is easily changed compared to adults, the studies suggest.

Yogurt cultures may also have an important role

Products such as yogurts, fermented milks, and some cheeses may have an extra advantage because the starter cultures used to make them, such as S. thermophilus, may help to reduce further the potential for caries (2).

Keep it regular

The studies varied in the type of dairy product they used, the frequency, and duration (ranging from a few weeks to several months). Overall, they showed the importance of regularly consuming the probiotic product to see the health effect. For example, authors of one study recommended drinking probiotic milk every day after they found this was better at inhibiting the caries-causing microorganisms than tri-weekly consumption (3).

However, the probiotic impact may last for 2–4 weeks after you stop consuming it, the research showed.

Periodontal disease may also be hindered by probiotic dairy products

Periodontal diseases are mainly due to chronic inflammation, triggered by harmful bacteria, of the gums and bone that support the teeth. It may start with gingivitis, in which the gums become swollen and may bleed.

The studies showed that probiotic-containing milk, yogurt and cheese are associated with a reduced risk of periodontal disease in children and adults, and improved gum health. (1,3) For example, probiotic yogurt consumption was associated with lower bleeding on probing, and reduced plaque and sore gums.

The studies suggested that, as well as competing with the harmful microorganisms, probiotic dairy may act against periodontal disease through an anti-inflammatory effect in the mouth, reducing swelling of the gums.

Don’t forget, brushing is best

While probiotic dairy products included in a healthy balanced diet may play a valuable role, the best way to keep your teeth and gums in good shape is still to give them a good scrub with the toothbrush, the researchers stress.

‘… the administration of probiotic dairy products could modify the oral microbiota (reductions in S. mutans counts), influence caries development and periodontal disease, or improve gingival health in all subjects (children, adolescents, adults, and the elderly).’ – Farias da Cruz M, et al. 2022

Find out more: read the original article.