Extended Data Table 5 Comparison of baseline diets (except for North America, Sub-Saharan Africa) as estimated in this study (2017 data) with diets based on balancing all 11 essential nutrients as well as the ‘planet-health diet”

From: Global food nutrients analysis reveals alarming gaps and daunting challenges

  1. Optimal diet is derived employing a linear optimization algorithm to select and quantify each of the 11 food groups to achieve the goal of balancing all 11 nutrients against recommended nutrient intake. Adjusted optimal diet is derived using the same approach but incorporating three intervention strategies. First, reducing food loss/waste and maximizing food processing efficacy, which would add 706 Mt of food for human consumption. Second, biofortification technologies have been shown to substantially increase micronutrients content of various food crops. Based on our literature synthesis, we presume that advancement in biotechnology development and implementation would enhance the nine micronutrients by 20% for all plant-based food groups. Third, we consider the use of supplements to fulfill 10% of the required intake for vitamin A and calcium. The "Planet-health’ diet as a reference is designed by the Lancet Commission1.
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