Nutritional and food safety perspective of plant-forward dietary transitions in Denmark

Background

Plant-forward dietary transitions may offer environmental and public health benefits but can compromise micronutrient intake adequacy and alter exposure to food contaminants.

Methods

We assessed key micronutrient and chemical contaminant dietary exposure in eight dietary scenarios: the baseline Danish diet, a Danish-adjusted EAT-Lancet planetary health diet, and six proportional animal-to-plant food substitutions (10%, 25%, and 50%, each in normal and high protein versions). To model population-level intake distributions, a probabilistic simulation was applied, stratified by sex, for eight micronutrients (vitamin D, calcium, iron, folate, vitamin B12, iodine, zinc, and selenium) and four chemicals (lead, cadmium, methylmercury, and inorganic arsenic), and compared them against dietary reference and health-based guidance values, respectively.

Results

Vitamin D, selenium, and zinc intakes remained inadequate across all scenarios, including baseline. Vitamin B12 and calcium exposure decreased from baseline to more plant-forward scenarios. The DK EAT-Lancet diet improved iron and folate adequacy, especially for males. Chemical exposures for cadmium and methylmercury remained below tolerable daily intakes across dietary scenarios. Similarly, small variation across diets was found in lead exposure, with the percentage of the population at health risk remaining below 2.9%. Inorganic arsenic poses the largest concern in DK EAT-Lancet scenario (9.6% females, 14.8% males at risk).

Conclusions

These findings reveal micronutrient and chemical exposure trade-offs of sustainable dietary shifts. While such diets may favour folate and iron, they introduce risk for nutrients largely dependent on animal-source foods, alongside an elevated risk of toxic chemical exposure. The assessment identifies the main drivers of exposure to target mitigation strategies and policy integration, to decrease the environmental impact of food systems while maintaining public health.

Key messages

• Shifting to plant-forward sustainable diets has positive impact on planetary health but may introduce micronutrient gaps and elevated exposure to contaminants in the population.

• Alternative dietary scenarios must be carefully modelled to mitigate the trade-off that plant-forward diets introduce to public health, alongside lowering the food system carbon footprint.