Fruit and Vegetable Supplemented Diet Modulates the Pig Transcriptome and Microbiome after a Two-Week Feeding Intervention

A study was conducted to determine the effects of a diet supplemented with fruits and vegetables (FV) on the host whole blood cell (WBC) transcriptome and the composition and function of the intestinal microbiome. Nine six-week-old pigs were fed a pig grower diet alone or supplemented with lyophilized FV equivalent to half the daily recommended amount prescribed for humans by the Dietary Guideline for Americans (DGA) for two weeks. Host transcriptome changes in the WBC were evaluated by RNA sequencing. Isolated DNA from the fecal microbiome was used for 16S rDNA taxonomic analysis and prediction of metabolomic function. Feeding an FV-supplemented diet to pigs induced differential expression of several genes associated with an increase in B-cell development and differentiation and the regulation of cellular movement, inflammatory response, and cell-to-cell signaling. Linear discriminant analysis effect size (LEfSe) in fecal microbiome samples showed differential increases in genera from Lachnospiraceae and Ruminococcaceae families within the order Clostridiales and Erysipelotrichaceae family with a predicted reduction in rgpE-glucosyltransferase protein associated with lipopolysaccharide biosynthesis in pigs fed the FV-supplemented diet. These results suggest that feeding an FV-supplemented diet for two weeks modulated markers of cellular inflammatory and immune function in the WBC transcriptome and the composition of the intestinal microbiome by increasing the abundance of bacterial taxa that have been associated with improved intestinal health.

Evidence Use in the Development of the Australian Dietary Guidelines: A Qualitative Study

Dietary guidelines are important nutrition policy reference standards that should be informed by the best available evidence. The types of evidence that are reviewed and the evidence review methods that are used have implications for evidence translation. The aim of this study was to explore perceived advantages, disadvantages, and practicalities associated with the synthesis and translation of evidence from nutrient-based, food-based, and dietary patterns research in dietary guideline development. A qualitative descriptive study was conducted. Twenty-two semi-structured interviews were conducted with people involved in the development of the 2013 Australian Dietary Guidelines (ADGs). Transcripts were analysed thematically. To inform future ADGs, there was support for reviewing evidence on a range of dietary exposures (including dietary patterns, foods and food groups, nutrients and food components, and eating occasions) and health outcomes, as well as evidence on environmental sustainability and equity. At the evidence synthesis stage, practicalities associated with planning the evidence review and conducting original systematic reviews were discussed. At the evidence translation stage, practicalities associated with integrating the evidence and consulting stakeholders were described. To ensure that the best available evidence is translated into future ADGs, evidence review methods should be selected based on the exposures and outcomes of interest.

Feeding the New Zealand Family of Five Million, 5+ a Day of Vegetables?

New Zealand (NZ), a food-producing, geographically isolated nation has set a domestic dietary guideline of 5 servings a day/person of vegetables. The question “does New Zealand produce enough servings and diversity of vegetables to meet dietary recommendations of 5 diverse servings/day?” was explored. Publicly available data for weight of vegetables produced and hectares of land used in relation to five vegetable diversity groups of white roots-and-tubers, vitamin-A-vegetables, other vegetables, dark-green-leafy vegetables, and legumes were examined. Overall, the equivalent of 11.7 servings of vegetables/day/NZperson was produced. Potatoes, onions, carrots, and squash were produced in the largest quantities (total 7.7 servings/day/NZperson) but most onions, squash, and some potatoes were exported (2.5 servings/day/NZperson). There was inadequate production of legumes, 0.6 servings/day/NZ person (peas and beans) and dark-green-leafy vegetables, 0.03 servings/day/NZ person (silverbeet and spinach). Only 0.2% of the total land area of NZ is used for growing vegetables. Expansion of the area used for vegetables should be considered in the context of sustainable production and irreversible pressures confronting the unique land and soils the land use requires, as well as current environmental impacts of intensive conventional outdoor vegetable production. An environmentally sustainable and diverse supply of vegetables for domestic use needs to be strategically and actively protected.

Forecasting China’s food grain demand 2021-2050 with attention to balanced dietary and fertility policies

The estimation of China's future food grain demand has become vital input for designing grain security measures. Addressing the population's age-gender and urban-rural structures under three fertility policies scenarios together with concerns for balanced diets, we established a multi-factor driven model to forecast China's food grain demand (including staple food grain and feed grain) during 2021-2050. The three scenarios are as follows; the two-child fertility policy for couples when either the husband or the wife is from a single-child family (scenario 1); universal two-child policy (scenario 2), and no limitations on the number of children (scenario 3). The results show that in scenario 3, China's food grain demand would peak in 2030 at about 329.3 million tons, about 3.7 million tons higher than that in scenario 2, and 104.7 million tons lower than that estimated with the traditional per capita method. These findings indicate that the demographic transition for fertility policy adjustment is not the main impacting factor of China's food grain security from 2021 to 2050. We might overestimate food grain demand by about 15 percent if we ignored each age-gender and urban-rural structure of the population. Then it may lead to an oversupply of grain and accumulation of stocks, which would generate about 1 billion RMB annual inventory cost burden. An important complement to the demographic strategy would come from the adoption of the proposed Dietary Guideline for Chinese Residents (2019). It can make people much healthier and save about 7.5 percent of China's food grain consumption, reducing the pressure scarce supplies of water and land in the country.

A Country’s Dietary Guideline Should Now Be Updated by Replacing Refined Grain Diets by Whole Grains

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Lifetime Climate Impacts of Diet Transitions: A Novel Climate Change Accounting Perspective

Dietary transitions, such as eliminating meat consumption, have been proposed as one way to reduce the climate impact of the global and regional food systems. However, it should be ensured that replacement diets are, indeed, nutritious and that climate benefits are accurately accounted for. This study uses New Zealand food consumption as a case study for exploring the cumulative climate impact of adopting the national dietary guidelines and the substitution of meat from hypothetical diets. The new GWP* metric is used as it was designed to better reflect the climate impacts of the release of methane than the de facto standard 100-year Global Warming Potential metric (GWP100). A transition at age 25 to the hypothetical dietary guideline diet reduces cumulative warming associated with diet by 7 to 9% at the 100th year compared with consuming the average New Zealand diet. The reduction in diet-related cumulative warming from the transition to a hypothetical meat-substituted diet varied between 12% and 15%. This is equivalent to reducing an average individual’s lifetime warming contribution by 2 to 4%. General improvements are achieved for nutrient intakes by adopting the dietary guidelines compared with the average New Zealand diet; however, the substitution of meat items results in characteristic nutrient differences, and these differences must be considered alongside changes in emission profiles.