Un outil à découvrir en nutrition humaine : la programmation linéaire

Linear programming (LP) makes it possible to devise, from a list of foods of known nutritional composition, food rations which conform to a set of nutritional recommendations whilst satisfying various requirements as regards cost, preferences and eating habits. Using the “solver” function in the “Tools” drop-down menu, the Excel program can solve LP problems. The principle of LP and its practical implementation are explained here in detail using a simple example based on just two foods. The listing of numerous possible uses of LP in human nutrition illustrates the value of this tool to take account of the fundamentally multifactorial aspect of the problems posed in this domain, in particular the existence of numerous foods made up of numerous nutrients and the wide diversity of human dietary behaviours and food availability contexts.