Adherence to the EAT-Lancet Diet: Unintended Consequences for the Brain?
Young, HA. (2022) Nutrients 14(20) 4254. doi: 10.3390/nu14204254.
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Abstract:
In January 2019, the EAT-Lancet Commission defined a universal reference diet to promote human and environmental health. However, in doing so, the potential consequences for brain health were not considered.Whilst plant-based diets are generally associated with better cognitive and affective outcomes, those that severely limit animal products are not. Therefore, the potential ramifications of the EAT-Lancet diet on cognition, mood, and heart rate variability were considered (N = 328).
Adherence to the Alternative Healthy Eating Index (AHEI) was associated with having a better mood, focused attention, working and episodic memory, and higher heart rate variability. However, when the EAT-Lancet diet was considered, the effects were either smaller or not significant.
Cluster analysis identified a dietary style characterised by a strong adherence to the EAT-Lancet recommendation to limit meat intake, representing a sixth of the present sample. This group had a lower Mean Adequacy Ratio (MAR); did not meet the Recommended Nutrient Intake (RNI) for a range of nutrients including protein, selenium, zinc, iron, and folate; and reported a poorer mood.
These data highlight the potential unintended consequences of the EAT-Lancet recommendations for nutritional adequacy and affective health in some individuals. There is a need to better optimise the EAT-Lancet diet to support brain health. As we move towards more sustainable diets, these findings emphasise the need to consider how such diets might affect the brain.
FAB RESEARCH COMMENT:
The serious nutritional limitations of the so-called 'EAT-Lancet' diet have been discussed elsewhere. This largely plant-based diet was supposedly designed to be both more 'sustainable' (for the environment) and 'healthy' (for people).While the EAT-Lancet diet may be largely 'vegan-friendly' (in keeping with the beliefs of its sponsors and some of its best-known authors), the vast majority of foods recommended are essentially ultra-processed.
Its overall nutritional composition and balance was shown at the time to be distinctly sub-optimal not only for general health - but for mental health and wellbeing in particular, as this diet lacks many key nutrients vital for the normal development and functioning of the human brain and nervous system.
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