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The German Nutrition Association has updated its dietary guidelines to recommend cutting meat consumption in half, limiting dairy intake, and eating more plant-based foods – at least 75% of your The latter involves diet.
Months after pledging funds in its 2024 budget for a plant-based transition, Germany’s new dietary guidelines reflect the country’s attitude towards the future of food. Echoing the EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE) outlines the importance of plant-based eating habits.
The new dietary guidelines recommend that Germans eat less meat, less dairy, less eggs, and more plant-based foods – for their own health as well as the health of the planet. It is based on a new mathematical optimization model, based on the idea that the more food groups, the more you can eat from it.
The DGE recommends that a “health-promoting and ecologically sustainable diet” comprises more than 75% of plant-based foods, and less than a quarter of animal-derived foods. “If we want to eat a healthy diet and protect the environment at the same time, we have to change our diet now,” said DGE president Bernhard Watzl, who is also head of the Nutrition Recommendations working group Relates to Food.
A new wheel emphasizing plant-based foods
The new nutritional guidelines are based on a model developed by the DGE with experts from multiple disciplines, which calculates the quantities for specific food groups and generates the best consumption solution. The recommendations are aimed at adults aged 18-65 who eat both plant and animal foods, and have no special dietary needs.
A nutrition wheel shows what a healthy and sustainable diet looks like, according to the revised DGE guidelines. Drinks make up the largest food group – this basically means unsweetened water and tea. After this are fruits and vegetables; legumes, nuts and seeds; and grains and potatoes. Foods derived from animals such as milk and dairy products, fish, meat and eggs make up the rest of the wheel, accounting for less than a quarter of the total.
The guidelines recommend eating at least five servings of fruit and vegetables a day, with an emphasis on seasonality, colors and variety. Basically, the idea is that Germans eat more of these every day – and non-meat eaters are encouraged to increase their intake of whole, plant-based foods. What they should be eating less, however, are foods derived from animals. The recommended daily value for milk has been reduced from three parts to two parts. This calculates to a total of 500g of dairy, which could be two glasses of milk, two slices of cheese, or two 150g pots of yoghurt.
For meat and seafood, the guidelines have cut weekly values from a range of 300-500g to a maximum of 300g, with an extra 30g set aside for sausages. The DGE points out how eating “too much beef, pork, lamb and goat meat – and especially sausages made from them – increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and colon cancer”.
Meanwhile, legumes and nuts have their own article for the first time, and Germans are advised to eat 125g of the former weekly, and 25g of the latter each day. The guidelines also recommend eating highly processed whole grains, and vegetable oils over animal fats such as butter. In addition, processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt have been removed from the wheel, due to their links to obesity, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease.
This is all in line with a 2023 review of 37 health studies by researchers in Germany, which showed that the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and death can be significantly reduced by switching from processed animal products to whole plant-based diets . Replacing 50g of processed meat per day with 28-50g of nuts can reduce the risk of death from any cause by 21%, and the likelihood of cardiovascular disease – the leading cause of death worldwide (responsible for a third of deaths) – can be reduced by 25% if nuts or legumes replace 50g of processed meat per day.
Lack of focus on plant-based alternatives
While the new proposals were welcomed by many, questions were also raised about certain aspects of the guidelines. Anna-Lena Klapp, senior nutrition and health specialist at ProVeg International, noted that the food-based dietary guidelines classify beans, legumes and nuts as a separate, but very small, food group.
“This fails to recognize the important role that beans and legumes play in transforming our food system,” she wrote on LinkedIn. “Legumes are an inexpensive source of protein, vitamins, complex carbohydrates and fiber, and are also very beneficial for sustainable agricultural practices. We really need to increase the role of legumes in our diets.”
And while the updated guidelines represent a departure from Germany’s previous position of advising against veganism, Klapp called the exclusion of plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy a “missed opportunity”. A 2022 study showed that 40% of the nutritional guidelines assessed from 100 countries contain details and recommendations on vegetarian and vegan diets, and 45% mention meat and dairy analogues in the guidelines.
“Plant-based alternatives to common animal products play a vital role in people transitioning to a plant-based diet as these products often closely resemble the foods people are used to and that they like,” she explained, adding that these guidelines should help. identify which vegetarian options can and cannot be part of a sustainable and healthy diet.
“They should distinguish between plant-based alternatives that can be eaten frequently, and those that should be eaten in moderation or seen as not to be enjoyed,” she noted, while pointing out that most guidelines for animal-based products have similar recommendations, with the Dutch and Swedish recommendations are the future positions.
However, the DGE does not completely ignore these products. He mentions plant-based milk, noting that these can be used as long as they are fortified with adequate amounts of calcium, vitamin B2 and iodine (which are most of the top offerings in the category). In some of the FAQs on their website, the German Nutrition Association explains that the nutritional profile of plant-based meat, seafood and dairy differs greatly from that of animal foods”, adding: “Based on habits German consumption, total or partial replacement – especially of milk and fish – with plant-based alternatives without proper substitution could lead to nutrient deficiencies.”
He notes, however, that animal-derived foods have a higher climate footprint than plant-based products, contain cholesterol, and tend to have more saturated fatty acids. “Therefore, they should complement the choice of plant-based food in a balanced diet,” notes the DGE.
Germans are already eating less meat
The German dietary guidelines cater to what is considered to be the most flexible group in Europe (estimated to be between 40-55% of the total population). A major EU-backed survey last year showed that 59% of Germans were already eating less meat in 2022 than the previous year – the lowest in the EU.
Meanwhile, health was the main reason for buying plant-based meat and dairy (cited by 47%), and given the country’s status as Europe’s largest plant-based market, the why Klapp asked for non-includes odd vegan options. But the DGE explains that its mathematically optimized model accounts for the typical German diet, saying that the reason foods of animal origin are included is because they are already eaten frequently.
“The new optimized model can simultaneously take into account different aspects of the environment, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, when calculating the amount of food consumed,” explained Anne Carolin Schäfer, nutritionist in the Department of Science DGE.
In any case, the consumption of plant-based foods will continue to grow in Germany, with retailers such as Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi and the Rewe Group making vegan analogues of meat and dairy at the same price or cheaper than their traditional counterparts. Last week, Burger King announced a similar move, with all its plant-based menu items now cheaper than meat. Meanwhile, the German government has earmarked €38M in its 2024 Budget to promote alternative protein consumption and transition to plant-based agriculture, as well as opening the Proteins of the Future center.
“Eating fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and vegetable oils doesn’t just protect your health,” Watzl said. “On the other hand, the production of animal foods such as meat and dairy products pollutes the environment more strongly, and a high level of meat consumption is associated with a higher risk of developing certain diseases.”
Other countries that have recently aligned their nutritional guidelines to better focus on plant-based foods include the Nordic nations, Taiwan, and Canada. Meanwhile, France is facing calls to do the same.
