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The German Nutrition Association has updated its dietary guidelines to recommend halving meat consumption, limiting dairy intake and eating more plant-based foods – the latter of which should make up at least 75% of your diet.
Months after releasing money for a plant-based transition in its 2024 budget, Germany’s new dietary guidelines reflect the country’s attitude to the future of food. Following the EAT-Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Diet, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Ernährung (DGE) has outlined the importance of plant-forward eating habits.
The new dietary guidelines recommend that Germans eat less meat, less dairy, fewer eggs and more plant-based foods – both for their own health and that of the planet. It is based on a new mathematical optimization model, based on the idea that the larger a food group is, the more you can eat of it.
The DGE suggests that a “health-promoting and environmentally sustainable diet” includes more than 75% of plant foods, and less than a quarter of animal foods. “If we want to eat healthy and protect the environment at the same time, we must change our diet now,” says DGE Chairman Bernhard Watzl, who is also head of the Food-Related Nutrition Recommendations working group.
A new wheel that emphasizes plant-based foods
The new dietary guidelines are based on a model that the DGE developed together with experts from multiple disciplines, which calculates the amounts for specific food groups and generates an optimal consumption solution. The recommendations are aimed at adults aged 18 to 65 who eat both plant and animal foods and have no special dietary needs.
A nutrition wheel illustrates what a healthy and sustainable diet looks like, according to the revised guidelines of the DGE. Beverages represent the largest food group – this essentially means water and unsweetened tea. This is followed by fruits and vegetables; legumes, nuts and seeds; and grains and potatoes. Animal foods such as milk and dairy products, fish, meat and eggs make up the rest of the wheel and represent less than a quarter of the total.
The guidelines suggest you should eat at least five fruits and vegetables every day, with an emphasis on seasonality, color and variety. Essentially, the idea is that Germans are eating more of this every day – and those who don’t eat meat are recommended to increase their intake of plant-based, whole foods. What they should eat less of, however, is animal food. The daily recommended amount of milk has been reduced from three to two servings. This amounts to a total of 500 grams of dairy, which equates to two glasses of milk, two slices of cheese or two 150 gram pots of yogurt.
As for meat and seafood, the guidelines have reduced weekly values from 300-500 grams to a maximum of 300 grams, with a further 30 grams set aside for sausages. The DGE points out that 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 section for the first time, with Germans recommending eating 125 grams of the former weekly and 25 grams of the latter daily. The guidelines also suggest eating whole grains instead of processed grains, and vegetable oils instead of animal fats like butter. Additionally, processed foods high in sugar, fat and salt have been taken off the wheel due to their links to obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
This all lines up with a 2023 review of 37 health studies by researchers in Germany, which found that switching from processed animal products to whole-food plant-based diets can significantly reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes and death. Replacing 50 grams of processed meat daily with 28-50 grams of nuts can reduce the risk of death from any cause by 21%, while reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease – by far the leading cause of death worldwide (responsible for a third of all deaths) – can be reduced by 25% if 50 grams of processed meat per day is replaced by nuts or legumes.
A lack of focus on plant-based alternatives
While the new recommendations have been welcomed by many, questions have also been 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 have to 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 highly beneficial for sustainable agricultural practices. We really need to increase the role of legumes in our diet.”
And while the updated guidelines mark 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 found that 40% of reviewed dietary guidelines from 100 countries included data and recommendations on vegetarian and vegan diets, and 45% listed meat and dairy analogues in the guidelines.
“Crucially, plant-based alternatives to popular animal products play a vital role for people transitioning to a more plant-based diet, as these products are often very similar to the foods people are used to and enjoy,” she explained, adding that these guidelines should help identify which vegan alternatives can and cannot be part of a sustainable and healthy diet.
“They should distinguish between plant-based alternatives that can be consumed frequently and those that should be eaten in moderation or viewed purely as a stimulant,” she noted, noting that there are similar recommendations in most guidelines for animal products. with Dutch and Swedish recommendations the highlights here.
However, the DGE does not completely ignore these products. Plant-based milks are mentioned, 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 major offerings in this category). In a frequently asked questions section on its website, the German Nutrition Association explains that the nutritional profile of plant-based meat, seafood and dairy “often differs greatly from that of animal foods,” adding: “Based on usual consumption habits in Germany , the complete or partial replacement – especially of milk and fish – with plant-based alternatives without appropriate substitution can lead to nutrient deficiencies.”
However, it is noted that animal foods have a larger climate footprint than plant products, contain cholesterol and generally contain more saturated fatty acids. “Therefore, they should complement the selection of plant foods in a balanced diet,” notes the DGE.
Germans are already eating less meat
The German dietary guidelines target what is considered Europe’s largest group of flexitarians (an estimated 40-55% of the total population). A major EU-backed survey last year found that 59% of Germans were already eating less meat in 2022 than the year before – the joint highest decline in the EU.
Meanwhile, health was the biggest reason for purchasing plant-based meat and dairy (47% citing this), and given the country’s status as Europe’s largest plant-based market, this is why Klapp called the lack of inclusion of vegan alternatives strange. But the DGE explains that its mathematical optimization model takes into account the average diet in Germany, and states that the reason foods of animal origin are included is because they are already commonly consumed.
“The new optimization model can simultaneously take into account different dimensions of the environment, such as greenhouse gas emissions and land use, when calculating the quantities of food consumed,” explains Anne Carolin Schäfer, a nutritionist at the DGE Science Department.
Regardless, consumption of plant-based foods in Germany will continue to grow, with retailers such as Lidl, Kaufland, Aldi and the Rewe Group all making vegan analogues of meat and dairy for the same price or cheaper than their conventional counterparts. Last week, Burger King announced a similar move, with all of its plant-based menu items now cheaper than meat. Meanwhile, the German government has set aside 38 million euros in its 2024 budget to promote alternative protein consumption and a switch to plant-based agriculture, and to open a center for Proteins of the Future.
“Eating mainly fruits and vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and vegetable oils not only protects your health,” says Watzl. “In contrast, the production of animal foods such as meat and dairy products pollutes the environment more, and high meat consumption is associated with a higher risk of developing certain diseases.”
Other countries that have recently updated their dietary guidelines to better focus on plant-based foods include the Nordic countries, Taiwan and Canada. France, meanwhile, is facing calls to do the same.
