Protein consumption and sustainability: Diet diversity in EU-15

In search of viable ways to create more sustainable diets, it is extremely valuable to analyse how people in various countries are supplied with dietary proteins from plant-based and animal-based sources. As a cross-national comparison of food ingredients may easily lead to misleading interpretations, it is crucial to opt for a multidisciplinary approach and to focus on countries that are spread across a bounded geographical area. In the present paper, an overview of diet proteins in the EU-15 member states is presented. As it turns out, the diets are rather diverse but everywhere the same major sources can be distinguished, i.e., meat, cereals and milk. The analysis showed a strong influence of location on protein diets. There are significant differences between, on the one hand, countries with high supplies of protein provided by vegetables and cereals, and, on the other hand, countries with high supplies of protein derived from milk. In this respect, Portugal, Italy and Greece can be contrasted with The Netherlands, Sweden and Finland as the two poles of an axis, with intermediate positions for the other countries. A number of interrelated differences between these countries clearly demonstrated the impacts of ecological, economic and cultural factors on current dietary protein supply. Although it does not make sense to plea simply in favour of turning the clock back, we draw the conclusion that there is room for a diet that is less dependent on meat proteins without going beyond the limits set by nutrition and health. Our results suggest that the East Mediterranean diet of the early 1960s has interesting qualities for the development of options to create more sustainable, healthful diets.