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Swedish Food Agency updates food plate model to consider planetary health

The Swedish Food Agency (SFA) has updated its national dietary recommendations to prioritise the health of the planet with an emphasis on plant-based alternatives to meat and dairy.

The latest iteration of the Food Circle now includes foods suitable for vegans and vegetarians like nuts, seeds, and legumes, which according to the SFA are foods with properties that make them fit into more groups.

“To protect both health and the climate, we need to eat in a different way than today,” said Åsa Brugård Konde, nutritionist at the SFA, who worked on updating the Food Circle. “It is one of the great future challenges.

“There are many people who want to eat more vegetarian, and regardless of whether you eat meat sometimes or not at all, you can now eat from all parts of the Food Circle.”

Along with plant-based foods, the Food Circle also caters for diary alternatives, with the inclusion of plant-based yoghurts and vegetable-based drinks.

The SFA points out that only enriched vegetarian products, such as an oat drink fortified with calcium and vitamin D, can match the nutritional value of traditional dairy products.

“The [plant-based] food may also have lower bioavailability of certain nutrients,” said Konde. “It can be problematic especially for young girls and women of childbearing age, who find it difficult to cover the needs of iron in particular. It is something we will look into more in the future.”

Circle and Plate models work in unison

Despite its considerations, the SFA acknowledges the Food Circle may not address other equally relevant issues, such as the amount of food or how to distribute the food over a meal.

Here, it recommends the plate model, which better demonstrates how to achieve a good balance of nutrients with each meal.

The three-part model, the largest of which consists of vegetables and root vegetables, can fill as much as half the plate for those who are physically inactive.

The second part is reserved for potatoes, pasta, bread or grains such as rice, bulgur, oats and grains, especially whole grain varieties. This portion can be made larger for physically active individuals.

The smallest portion is intended for meat, fish, eggs and legumes, such as beans, lentils and peas and is recommended to fill one fifth of the amount of food on the plate.

Food Circles in Europe

Along with food pyramids, food circles have proved popular in presenting dietary advice in an easy-to-understand convenient format.

Circles have been developed in Portugal, Sweden and the UK, which has also been commended in the past for its efforts to towards shifting to sustainable and healthy diets in the UK.

“The evidence on good health and environmental outcomes related to ‘planetary health’ diets is becoming more convincing,” said Dominic Moran, professor of agricultural and resource economics at the Roslin Institute, University of Edinburgh.

Food circle origins

The first model of the Food Circle was developed by the Norwegian Institute of Public Health in the 1960s, in which many vegan foods were missing.

Commenting on the importance of a more sustainable diet, Line Småstuen Haug, manager at The Center for Sustainable Diets at Sweden’s Institute of Public Health (Folkehelseinstituttet) said: “There is a great need for knowledge about both positive and negative aspects of the diet. We also need good methods to be able to predict how climate change and sustainability measures affect the diet.

“[Folkehelseinstituttet] FHI is in a unique position to obtain this knowledge because we have a national responsibility for monitoring the population's diet.

“An Environmental Biobank established to monitor the population's exposure to environmental toxins and population studies and health registers that can provide new insight into the connections between diet, environment and health outcomes,” she added.