Swapping from dairy to plant-based milk, cheese and yoghurt ‘could lead to micronutrient deficiencies’

From theguardian.com

Young people and women most at risk, study finds, as researchers call for vegan products to be fortified with iodine in particular 

Switching from dairy products to plant-based alternatives could lead to deficiencies in vital micronutrients, especially among young people and women, a study has found.

Even moving partly to vegan alternatives to milk, cheese and yoghurt could lead to falls in iodine, calcium, riboflavin and vitamin B12 if the substitutes, often based on soya, almonds or oats, are not fortified, scientists said.

The greatest concerns surround iodine, a trace element used by the thyroid gland to produce hormones that regulate metabolism and support healthy growth and brain development. More than half of UK teenage girls already have inadequate iodine intake, the researchers said.

Replacing a fifth to a third of dairy intake with plant-based alternatives would lead to prevalence of iodine deficiency rising from 54% to 65% of adolescent girls and from 32% to 42% of women aged 19 to 49 years old, according to modelling based on typical market levels of fortification.

“There are known health effects of iodine deficiency and that’s why we want to raise awareness of this,” said Dr Sarah Bath, an associate professor in public health nutrition at the University of Surrey. “The population groups that seem to be at risk and have the lowest intakes were the young women and women of childbearing age, and that’s the key life stage where iodine is particularly important.”

Vegan milk alternatives should be fortified with vital micronutrients, particularly iodine, say researchers. Photograph: Olena Rudo/Alamy

Plant-based alternatives to milk, cheese and yoghurt have grown in popularity, though there are signs some consumers are shifting back.

In the UK, children get about half, and adults about a third, of their total iodine intake from dairy products, but there is no formal requirement for vegan alternatives to be fortified with micronutrients.

The researchers looked at the impact of replacing dairy with plant-based alternatives on the UK market, including 146 non-dairy milks, 76 yoghurts and 67 cheeses. While 61% had added calcium and 46% added vitamin B12, only 19% were fortified with riboflavin and 12% with iodine.

At these levels, the scientists’ modelling showed that swapping a third of dairy intake for vegan alternatives led to a 9% to 21% drop in iodine intake, with calcium, riboflavin and vitamin B12 also falling. Switching to 100% non-dairy alternatives led to inadequate levels of iodine reaching 80% in teenage girls and 72% in teenage boys.

Requiring all non-dairy alternatives to be fortified with iodine would prevent average declines, the study found. Adding iodised salt to bread helped reduce the proportion of teenage girls with inadequate iodine intake in the modelled scenarios. The study is published in the Lancet Planetary Health.

Some dairy substitutes are already fortified, including the core range of Alpro products and some Oatly drinks. Photograph: Vuk Valcic/Zuma Press/Rex/Shutterstock

Some companies already fortify their dairy substitutes. Niamh Brannelly, the head of nutrition and science communications for Danone in the UK, said its core range of Alpro products was fortified for calcium, iodine and vitamins B2 and B12.

Caroline Orfila Jenkins, a vice-president for science and technology at Oatly, said all its unflavoured, non-organic oat drinks were fortified with nutrients including iodine, calcium, riboflavin and vitamins B12 and D. “This research underlines the importance of appropriate fortification as diets become more plant-based,” she said.

Nichola Ludlam-Raine, a registered dietitian and spokesperson for the British Dietetic Association, said the work raised an important population-level concern but did not mean that everyone who switched would become nutrient-deficient because overall diet mattered too.

“For anyone choosing plant-based milk, I’d recommend checking the label and choosing one fortified with iodine, such as Alpro,” she said. “Organic drinks aren’t fortified with added nutrients, so they’re unlikely to provide iodine. White fish such as cod or haddock, as well as eggs and yoghurt and kefir for those who consume them, can also contribute iodine. I wouldn’t recommend relying on seaweed or kelp supplements as an iodine source, as the iodine content can vary widely and may be excessive.”

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2026/nov/04/swapping-dairy-milk-cheese-yoghurt-plant-based-vegan-alternatives-deficiencies-micronutrients-iodine

Vegan diets have a surprising effect on gut bacteria, study reveals

From earth.com 

A study reveals that vegans have less diverse gut bacteria than meat-eaters, despite eating more fibre and showing several healthier metabolic markers

Plant-based diets are widely believed to support a healthy gut, partly because fibre feeds beneficial bacteria.

Scientists therefore expected vegans to have a greater variety of gut microbes than people who eat meat. But a study of 150 healthy adults in Denmark found the opposite.

Vegans had less diverse gut bacteria, even though several other measures of their gut and metabolic health appeared more favourable.

The study was led by Oluf Borbye Pedersen, a professor at the University of Copenhagen‘s Novo Nordisk Foundation Center for Basic Metabolic Research.

“This came as a major surprise,” Pedersen said.

“Because vegans eat only plant-based foods and therefore consume large amounts of dietary fibre and other health-promoting plant compounds that stimulate the gut microbiome, we expected the vegan group to have greater bacterial diversity than the omnivores.

“But that was not the case.”

A plant-based diet can influence the composition of bacteria living in the human gut. Credit: Shutterstock

Four days of meals

The volunteers lived in urban Denmark and joined through newspaper and social media ads. They ranged from 18 to 65, and each group had an average age of 31, with 40 women and 35 men.

Each vegan had eaten that way for at least a year, with an average of about six and a half years.

Researchers excluded people with gut disease, pregnant or breastfeeding women, and anyone who had taken antibiotics or probiotics in the previous three months.

For four days, each person weighed everything they ate on a precision scale, covering two workdays and two weekend days. They also gave stool, blood and urine samples.

Scientists at Université Paris-Saclay in France read DNA from the stool to identify the microbes.

Researchers at Imperial College London measured more than 200 small molecules in the stool, blood and urine.

Protein may matter

Both groups ate roughly the same number of calories. But protein supplied 12% of the vegans’ calories, compared with 17% for meat-eaters.

The vegans ate nearly 70% more fibre, yet their gut bacteria were less varied on most measures. Scientists often use bacterial variety as a sign of good metabolic health.

Among vegans, those who ate more protein tended to have more kinds of gut bacteria, while fibre showed no such link. People who had been vegan longer also tended to carry more species.

Protein intake, time on the diet and age together explained about a third of the differences in species counts among vegans.

Pedersen thinks lower protein intake may help explain the lower variety, making protein a factor worth studying more closely.

Which bacteria showed up

The team found 109 bacterial species whose amounts differed between the groups: 82 were more common in meat-eaters and 27 in vegans. Many of those more common in vegans were linked to higher fibre intake.

Two species more common in meat-eaters, Streptococcus thermophilus and Lactococcus lactis, also occur in dairy products.

To assess the bacteria, researchers used a ranking published in Nature in 2025, based on their links to heart and metabolic health in US and UK populations.

Of the 16 ranked species that were more common in vegans, 13 fell on the healthy side, compared with 28 of the 66 species more common in meat-eaters.

Vegans in the top third for protein intake carried more of the healthy-rated species usually found in meat-eaters, while those in the bottom third carried fewer.

“Apart from the reduced diversity of gut bacteria, we found that the vegans had a health-promoting gut microbiome,” Pedersen said.

What blood tests showed

The vegans had lower blood sugar on two standard tests. They also had lower total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol.

Their blood contained fewer white blood cells and less C-reactive protein, a marker of inflammation. Blood pressure was the same in both groups, and body size was almost identical.

Meat-eaters had more of two compounds that gut bacteria help make in their urine, including TMAO. Earlier studies have linked both compounds to heart disease and chronic kidney disease.

Here, neither compound clearly tracked cholesterol or other health measures after researchers accounted for age, sex and body size.

The team also did not adjust for how diluted the urine samples were, which could explain some of the difference.

Other gut findings

Despite the different mix of bacteria, both groups carried bacterial genes for nearly the same jobs.

Only four of 320 gene sets differed, including one involved in breaking down a building block of protein and another involved in antibiotic resistance.

Bacteria have viruses of their own, and these differed too. Vegans carried fewer kinds of viruses that kill the bacteria they infect.

Viruses that can live inside bacteria without killing them were about equally common in both groups.

The authors suggested that fewer destructive viruses might mean a steadier gut community, with fewer bacteria being killed and replaced.

Another gut resident

A single-celled organism called Blastocystis appeared in 27 of the 75 vegans, compared with 14 of the 75 meat-eaters.

Vegans carrying it had lower systolic blood pressure, the top number in a reading, after researchers accounted for age, sex and body size.

Among meat-eaters, blood pressure was similar whether people carried it or not.

The authors think Blastocystis may signal a healthy gut. A 2024 study of nearly 57,000 people across 32 countries linked it to healthier diets and better heart and metabolic health.

But this team identified it only through stool DNA, without a second lab test to confirm it. Too few people carried each type for researchers to work out which type, if any, might explain the blood pressure link.

Limitations of the study

Researchers measured each person once and studied the diets people already followed. That can reveal links, but it cannot show that diet caused the differences.

No one changed the vegans’ meals and then checked what happened to their gut bacteria.

Eating more protein might affect bacterial variety, or something else about the people who ate more protein might explain the pattern.

The study involved just 150 healthy adults in Denmark, most at a normal weight, so the findings may not apply to broader populations.

Rethinking a healthy gut

Pedersen said the findings cannot serve as diet recommendations, though they support paying attention to nutrition whatever people eat.

“Vegans in particular should consider whether they are getting enough protein in their diet, since they do not obtain it from meat, eggs or dairy products,” he added.

“Good vegan sources of protein include beans, lentils, hemp seeds, chia seeds, quinoa, almonds and nuts.”

The findings challenge the idea that a more diverse gut microbiome is always a healthier one.

Although protein intake may help explain some of the differences, researchers need further studies to understand how vegan diets shape gut bacteria and what those changes mean for long-term health.

The study is published in the journal Microbiome.

https://www.earth.com/lifestyle/vegan-diets-have-a-surprising-effect-on-gut-bacteria-study-reveals/

UK: Oxford University invites 100,000 people to take part in a major study of plant-based diets

From ndph.ox.ac.uk

Researchers at Oxford Population Health have launched a major new study designed to generate the most up-to-date picture of different diets in the UK, including plant-based diets, and how they affect long-term health and wellbeing. 

All UK residents aged 18 years and over are invited to complete an online questionnaire, regardless of whether they regularly consume meat, fish, and dairy products, or follow a flexitarian or plant-based diet. Participants can also opt to receive a personalised nutrient report, contribute biological samples, and complete follow-up questionnaires. 

Funded by the Medical Research Council, part of UK Research and Innovation, the EPIC-Oxford 2 study will investigate the health effects of modern diets as dietary habits in the UK continue to evolve.  

The project builds on the original EPIC-Oxford study, one of the best-known studies of vegetarian and vegan diets, which began in the 1990s and has followed the health of around 65,000 people living throughout the UK. 

The main objective of EPIC-Oxford 2 is to establish the world's most informative resource for studying the health benefits and risks of modern plant-based diets. The EPIC-Oxford 2 team aims to involve around 100,000 people, including 80,000 new volunteers alongside participants from the original EPIC-Oxford study.

Why the study is needed 

The UK's food landscape has changed significantly since the original EPIC-Oxford study was established more than three decades ago. Previous studies of vegetarian and vegan diets were conducted before the widespread availability of today's plant-based meat and dairy alternatives, and relatively little is known about the long-term health effects of modern dietary patterns.  

EPIC-Oxford 2 aims to address this evidence gap by collecting detailed information on diet, lifestyle and health from adults across the UK. Key changes in the food landscape and dietary patterns include: 

• An increasing number of people are following a flexitarian, pescatarian, vegetarian or vegan diet; 

• Growing interest in reducing consumption of meat and other animal products for health, environmental and ethical reasons; 

• Rapid expansion in the availability and consumption of plant-based food products; 

• Increasing public debate about the health impacts of ultra-processed foods, including plant-based alternatives. 

Keren Papier, Chief Investigator and Senior Nutritional Epidemiologist at Oxford Population Health, said:

More people in the UK are experimenting with plant-based diets than ever before, but what people are eating today is very different from what they were eating when many of the studies that inform current evidence were conducted. Participants in this study will help us to address many important questions about how modern diets affect long-term health; we are very grateful for their input.

How this study contributes to health research 

The original EPIC-Oxford study revealed important differences in disease risk between people following different diets, including vegans, vegetarians, pescatarians and meat-eaters. Researchers observed differences in the risk of conditions such as heart disease, diabetes and some cancers, but many questions remain. EPIC-Oxford 2 aims to go beyond identifying patterns by combining information on diet, health, lifestyle and biomarkers.  

Keren Papier added:

With EPIC-Oxford 2, we want to go beyond describing those differences in disease risk and better understand the biological mechanisms that may explain them. By combining population-level diet research with molecular studies, we hope to build stronger evidence on how diet affects health and support better disease prevention in the future.

Take part 

EPIC-Oxford 2 is open to anyone aged 18 years or over living in the UK. Researchers are keen to hear from everyone, whatever they eat. The information gathered will support future investigations into a range of important health outcomes and may help inform dietary guidance for the public.  

People interested in taking part in the study can find out more on the EPIC-Oxford 2 webpages and complete the online survey which will take around 25 minutes.   

https://www.ndph.ox.ac.uk/news/oxford-launches-major-uk-study-of-plant-based-diets 

Future Food Quick Bites: Burger King Royale, Vegan Chocolates & SuperYou Protein

From greenqueen.com.hk

By Anay Mridul

Our weekly column rounds up the latest sustainable food innovation news. This week, Future Food Quick Bites covers Burger King’s Vegan Royale offer, The Undairy Co.’s dairy-free chocolates, and the cost of UPF labelling.

New products and launches

As part of its ongoing partnership with The Vegetarian Butcher, fast-food chain Burger King is offering a buy-one-get-one-free deal on 250,000 Vegan Royale sandwiches to UK customers who purchase one of the former’s products in supermarkets. The purchases must be made before November 22, and shoppers can redeem the burger offer until December 31. 

Courtesy: The Undairy Co.

UK chocolate brand The Undairy Co. has launched the Icons Selection Box, a plant-based take on Mars’s Celebrations chocolate mix, featuring seven options that resemble Dairy Milk, Terry’s Chocolate Orange, Biscoff truffles, and the Cadbury Creme Egg.

Speaking of vegan chocolate, Cornwall-based Buttermilk has launched a Caramel Choc Biscuit Fingers bar in the style of Twix at Morrisons, priced at £1.50 per 50g.

Courtesy: HappyVore

HappyVore, France’s best-selling meat alternative brand, has expanded its plant-based cordon bleu range with a tomato version, after it became the “biggest launch” in the country’s vegan deli category, according to its founder.

Indian pet food brand Drools has rolled out 100% Veg Gravy, a plant-based wet food for dogs, designed to be served as a complementary food or mixed with dry kibble to add moisture, aroma and variety.

Fellow Indian start-up SuperYou, co-owned by Bollywood actor Ranveer Singh, has made its US debut, launching its fermented yeast protein powder at Walmart, and soon on Amazon.

US woman-owned wellness start-up Mujo Co. has teamed up with Rubisco protein maker Plantible Foods to launch a vanilla protein powder combining the latter’s duckweed-derived protein with yellow pea protein and coconut MCT oil. It delivers 22g of complete protein per 30g, and will begin shipping next month for $45 per 450g pack.

Meanwhile, US frozen food company Blackbird Foods‘s plant-based pepperoni pizza has landed on the shelves of select Target stores.

And New York-based Sweet Vegan has kickstarted its fifth annual Harvest Basket Giveaway, bringing together 16 brands to offer one winner a box of vegan food, desserts, beauty, wellness, fashion, dining experiences, and lifestyle products worth over $3,500.

Company and finance updates

US fermentation start-up Superbrewed Food has hired former Kerry Group and Nuritas executive Rizwan Khan as its new CEO, who will take over from co-founder Bryan Tracey (who now serves as company president). It has simultaneously announced results from a consumer trial of its Thrvia postbiotic, with 89% of participants showing improvement in their overall digestive health scores after four weeks.

Courtesy: Superbrewed Food

Californian precision fermentation start-up The Every Company has secured a new US patent covering advanced ovalbumin (the main protein in egg whites) compositions and food applications across a range of microbial strains (such as Pichia pastoris, Trichoderma reesei, and Aspergillus niger). It is the firm’s 65th granted patent globally.

Israeli precision-fermented dairy start-up Imagindairy has appointed Paul Kollesoff as its executive chairperson. He previously had senior leadership roles at Glanbia Nutritionals and Perfect Day (where he founded consumer brand The Urgent Company).

Copenhagen-based mycelium protein start-up Tempty Foods has been recognised as the Danish Food Start-up of the Year 2026 by the Danish Startup Group.

US rubisco protein startup Fudi Protein and cultivated meat media supplier Deco Labs have won the pitch competition at Bezos Earth Fund‘s second annual summit by the Bezos Center for Sustainable Protein at North Carolina State University, securing $75,000 each.

Russian dairy processor Milk Logic (formerly Danone’s subsidiary in the country) has acquired Poligrin, the parent company of the 5Yes! brand of plant-based milk, preserving the latter’s product recipes and team.

Research and policy developments

French precision fermentation start-up Verley has secured its first US patent, covering the microparticulation of its animal-free beta-lactoglobulin protein.

If the UK Parliament replaced 30% of its meat, fish and shellfish purchases with plant proteins like legumes, nuts and tofu, the government could save £216,000 a year in food procurement costs, according to analysis by Humane World for Animals.

The UK’s Alternative Proteins Association has published a best-practice guidance document for conducting novel food taste trials, drawing on insights from the Food Standards Agency‘s cultivated meat sandbox programme.

Algal oil and yeast protein have been named the top ingredients for use in alternative pet food by the Centre for Feed Innovation and the Pet Sustainability Coalition.

A large-scale study of 1,305 cats by the Griffith University School of Environment and Science in Australia has found that felines fed a vegan diet have a 34% lower chance of being assessed as overweight.

As the US government weighs up how to define ultra-processed foods (UPFs), a University of Chicago analysis suggests that mandatory UPF labelling could impact nearly three-quarters of packaged food products in the country and cost them $14.2B – and that doesn’t include an extra $1B a year in lost revenue for domestic agriculture and $7.7-8.7B in increased annual food import costs.

Finally, speaking of weight and UPFs, a study by the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine has revealed that eating more meat, fish, eggs, and dairy products was linked with weight gain even when they were minimally processed, while similarly processed plant-based food – like fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans – had the opposite effect.

https://www.greenqueen.com.hk/future-food-quick-bites-burger-king-royale-vegan-chocolates-superyou-protein/

Swap Meat For Vegetables And Avert 4.5 Million Chronic Disease Cases, Finds Study

From plantbasednews.org

Eating less meat and more veg could also significantly extend the average person's life expectancy 

According to a new study, reducing red and processed meat consumption in favour of vegetables and legumes could significantly reduce chronic disease cases.

Swapping meat for plants could also extend the average person’s lifespan, primarily due to positive “cardiovascular outcomes” from increased vegetable intake.

Reducing meat consumption by 50 percent could add 9.4 months to the average person's life expectancy - Media Credit: Karola G / Canva

The European Journal of Nutrition published the study in September. The authors used life table modelling and data from 2019’s UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey to simulate the potential impact of governmental influence on people’s diets.

Based on optimal dietary targets from the UK’s Climate Change Committee (CCC) of a 35 to 50 percent reduction in meat consumption, the authors projected the incidence and mortality rates of key diet-related chronic diseases over 30 years.

According to the study, achieving the CCC’s red and processed meat reduction targets was associated with a projected increase in life expectancy of 7.2 months in a 35 percent scenario and 9.4 months in a 50 percent scenario.

The authors linked 95 percent of the estimated increase in life expectancy to reduced cardiovascular disease mortality, and around 75 percent of those “mortality gains” to increased consumption of vegetables and legumes. The study also predicted declining rates of colorectal cancer and type 2 diabetes.

“These exploratory estimates suggest policy-driven reductions in red and processed meat aligned with climate goals could deliver substantial public health benefits. While conditional on modelled behavioural trajectories, findings offer relevant insights for European strategies to reduce cardiovascular disease burden and promote sustainable dietary transitions,” wrote the study’s authors.

Robust, practical dietary guidelines needed for widespread dietary change

European Journal of NutritionSwapping meat for vegetables cuts down on the risk of cancer, type 2 diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, in particular

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), the “strongest evidence” suggests that eating red and processed meat is linked to increased risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs) like cancer and cardiovascular disease.

A recent study by ProVeg International and the University of Göttingen found that most health professionals believe key plant-based foods are underrepresented in national dietary guidelines. As noted by ProVeg, scientifically robust, practical, and inclusive guidelines are essential for widespread dietary change. 

https://plantbasednews.org/lifestyle/health/swap-meat-for-vegetables-chronic-disease/