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Trial Lecture – time and place
See Trial Lecture.
Adjudication committee
- First opponent: Professor Inge Tetens, University of Copenhagen
- Second opponent: Postdoctoral Researcher Hanna Eneroth, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences
- Third member and chair of the evaluation committee: Professor Haakon Meyer, University of Oslo
Chair of the Defence
Professor Magne Thoresen, University of Oslo
Principal Supervisor
Professor Lene Frost Andersen, University of Oslo
Summary
Current food systems fail to deliver good health and are major drivers of environmental change.
The aim of this thesis was to address key questions about the health and environmental implications of implementing the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations 2023 (NNR2023) and other dietary frameworks, including the Norwegian Food-Based Dietary Guidelines (FBDGs, 2012) and the EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet (PHD), under Norwegian conditions.
The work uses detailed intake data from the national Norkost 3 (2010–2011) and Norkost 4 (2022–2023) dietary surveys of adults and older adults, linked to life cycle assessment data for six environmental indicators (e.g. greenhouse gas emissions, land use, eutrophication). We quantified the environmental impact of Norwegian adult diets across six indicators, assessed adequacy of utilizable protein in diets with higher plant protein shares, and applied constrained optimization to model culturally relevant diets that meet NNR2023 while reducing environmental pressures.
Current Norwegian diets have high environmental footprints, largely driven by ruminant meat and dairy. Total protein intake is almost twice estimated requirements, and two thirds of protein comes from animal sources. Our analyses show that protein intake can be reduced and partially shifted from animal to plant sources without compromising adequacy for most adults, though some older women remain more vulnerable. FBDG aligned diets reduce environmental impacts, but more plant forward patterns and optimized NNR2023 consistent diets achieve considerably larger reductions, at the cost of marked changes in food choice.
The findings highlight national FBDGs as a central tool to meet public health and environmental goals. However, the thesis work also underscores that achieving material dietary changes will require strong policy action and structural changes in food culture, particularly around ruminant meat, high fat dairy and the very low intake of legumes and other plant proteins.
Additional information
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