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The German Society for Nutrition has changed its official position on a vegan diet, re-evaluating the impact of plant-based foods and pointing out that a vegan diet can be a “health-promoting” diet.
After re-evaluating its official position on plant-based foods, the German Nutrition Agency (DGE), the body responsible for drawing up Germany’s dietary guidelines, said a vegan diet is more climate-friendly than the average German diet and a “diet that promotes health”.
The DGE, which last published an opinion on plant-based diets in 2021, said it now considers factors beyond health when assessing sustainable diets: Environmental impact, animal welfare and societal benefits are also now part of the revised assessment.
There has also been an update on the health front: previous position statements looked primarily at nutritional supply, but now include other parameters such as blood lipid levels and the risk of diet-related diseases (e.g. cardiovascular disease).
This assessment led the DGE to draw several new conclusions, softening its attitude towards vulnerable population groups eating a vegan diet, defending the interests of the planet, and supporting the nutritional integrity of a plant-based diet.
The move comes three months after the association updated its dietary guidelines, recommending halving meat intake, limiting dairy intake and eating more plant-based foods, which it says should make up at least 75 percent of Germans’ diets.
A healthy plant-based diet with the right supplements
The DGE’s new position states that a plant-based diet, when taken with vitamin B12 supplements, is a “health-promoting diet” for healthy adults, and recommends “balanced, well-planned food choices” and adequate intakes of “potentially important nutrients,” with supplements if needed.
One such nutrient is iodine, which is usually obtained from seafood and dairy products. “Plant-based milk alternatives are rarely fortified with iodine and, when they are not fortified, contain little to no iodine. Choosing iodine-fortified plant-based beverages can ensure adequate iodine intake,” the DGE says.
To meet household iodine intake, nutritional organizations recommend iodized and fluoridated table salt and foods made with it, as well as sea salt mixed with iodized seaweed.
Similarly, vitamin A is an important nutrient whose main active form, retinol, is found only in animal foods. Plant foods contain precursors, such as provitamin A carotenoids, but these are required in large quantities to be converted to retinol. The most important precursor is beta-carotene, which is found in deep yellow, orange, and green leafy vegetables and certain fruits.
“In order to obtain sufficient vitamin A on a vegan diet, it is in principle possible to do so by consuming only provitamin A carotenoids, provided that the enzymes responsible for the digestion and conversion of fats are not impaired,” the DGE said.
Another major change in the association’s stance concerns vulnerable populations: Until now, the association had not explicitly recommended a vegan diet for pregnant women, nursing mothers, infants, children, adolescents or the elderly, citing limited available data.
But now, based on improved but still limited data, the DGE says it “neither recommends nor discourages” plant-based diets for vulnerable groups. “While the previous ‘does not recommend’ statement should not be understood as a blanket rejection of well-planned vegan diets, the language chosen in the new assessment more closely reflects the currently available data,” the DGE outlined.
Climate-friendly vegan food
The DGE recognises the benefits a vegan diet can bring to the planet, calling it “more environmentally friendly” than the typical German mixed diet, which is high in animal products, and cites plant-based foods as a reason why they offer “great potential for reducing greenhouse gas emissions”.
Meat production alone accounts for 60% of global food emissions and emits twice as much CO2e as plant cultivation. Germans are aware of this, with meat consumption falling to a record low last year, citing climate and health as the main factors. A large EU-backed survey has found that 59% of Germans will already be eating less meat in 2022 than they did the previous year – the largest reduction within the EU.
The country is also Europe’s largest plant-based food market, thanks to a high proportion of flexitarians (estimated at 40-55% of the population). Retailers have stepped up their efforts, with Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi and Rewe Group (which has opened 100% plant-based stores) all selling vegan meat and dairy products at the same price or cheaper than traditional meat and dairy products. Burger King has also announced a similar move.
Meanwhile, the German government has allocated €38 million in its 2024 budget to promote the consumption of alternative proteins and the switch to plant-based agriculture, as well as to open protein centers of the future. Germany will also produce 17% more plant-based meat in 2023 than the previous year, with the total value increasing by 8.5% to €583 million.
“This new position heralds a new era in German nutrition policy,” said Anna-Lena Krapf, global nutrition and health lead at the nonprofit ProVeg International. “It brings vegan diets out of the shadows of policy debates and instead brings them to the forefront.”
Nordic countries, Taiwan and Canada have also recently restructured their nutritional guidelines to place more emphasis on plant-based foods, and France is being urged to do the same. “We are pleased to see this opinion published and hope it will influence similar groups around the world,” Clapp said.
