DSF Webinar – Project Proteos – what did you miss?

The May DSF webinar featured Dr. Mitch Kanter, Senior Scientific Advisor to the Global Dairy Platform who outlined the results of the recently completed ‘Project Proteos’, a six-year project to develop a more effective assessment of protein quality in foods. Some key takeaways from the presentation included:

1. The Digestible Indispensable Amino Acid Score (DIAAS) methodology developed by the Project Proteos research team for assessing protein quality is:

• more biologically valid than current methods
• takes protein concentration and digestibility into account (which other methods do not)
• can assess protein quality in mixed meals
• does not truncate protein quality values (as the current method does) which tends to underestimate differences between high- and low-quality protein sources.

2. The protein quality of foods and meals is important, and should particularly be considered when:

• protein intake is close to or below daily requirements, which is often the case in developing countries
• comparing the environmental footprint of protein foods
• energy intakes are low, as is often the case with diet/weight loss regimens, in the elderly, and with physically active people.

3. Generally animal sourced foods:

• have a higher protein quality than most plant sourced foods
• contain more protein per calorie than plant sourced foods
• contain nutrients that are difficult to obtain from plant foods
• can effectively use land that might otherwise be non-arable, or require less land than plant foods to produce the same amount of high-quality protein.

4. Plant-based diets can provide quality nutrition and beneficial environmental outcomes, but inclusion of animal-sourced foods, like dairy, in the diet can make a diet transition easier, more nutritious, and less of an environmental burden than one might think.

• A diverse range of protein types (both animal and plant) can provide the most nutritious, sustainable diet

 

A recording of the webinar is available in English or Spanish in the DSF Members Area. Details of future webinars and registration links can also be found there. We hope to see you at the July 17 webinar when we will hear from American Humane’s Haley Grimes talking about Animal Welfare’s place in the sustainability puzzle.