DROSH – Dairy’s role in a diet optimal for sustainability and health

Two of today’s major challenges are malnutrition in all its forms and the climate and environmental degradation crisis. The two challenges are interlinked, and it is acknowledged that part of the solution lies in a transition of food systems to provide diets that are both healthy and sustainable. The primary objective of DROSH is to develop and apply a calculation model that can find combinations of foods, including dairy products, that minimizes environmental impact and maximizes public health in Denmark and The Netherlands.

By: Grith Mortensen

Dairy foods have been a staple food group in Western societies for centuries, contributing with essential nutrients to sustain health throughout life. Besides, evidence is amounting that intake of certain dairy products can prevent some of the diseases that cause the highest burden in the population. At the same time, dairy and other animal-sourced foods are identified as food groups with a significant environmental footprint. Therefore, it is not trivial to identify the optimal solution for a diet that includes dairy products and is both healthy and sustainable. As such, consumers, industry and public stakeholders need a knowledge base from which to make informed decisions optimal for health and the environment.

To do this, food consumption and composition data will be collected from Denmark and The Netherlands as well as country specific environmental indicators of the foods. In addition, health indicators (loss or gain of healthy life years, DALY) of intake of foods in the Dutch and Danish population will be derived, with a focus on dairy products. Disability Adjusted life-years (DALY) is a health metric developed by WHO that captures the burden of disease in terms of both morbidity (how many live with a disease and how severe it is) and mortality (how many dies from a disease); one DALY equals one year of healthy life lost.

The data will be combined in a diet optimization model that integrates public health and environmental impact by use of quadratic programming. The outcomes of the optimization model will be communicated by implementing it in an interactive web-based tool, from which end-users can explore and extract results from the model. Positioning consumption of foods in the context of public health and environmental impact will add to the knowledge base needed for a transition to healthy and sustainable food systems.