Abstract
Protein food intake appears to partially structure dietary patterns, as most current emergent diets (e.g., vegetarian and flexitarian) can be described according to their levels of specific protein sources. However, few data are available on dietary protein patterns in the general population and their association with nutrient adequacy. Based on protein food intake data concerning 1678 adults from a representative French national dietary survey, and non-negative-matrix factorization followed by cluster analysis, we were able to identify distinctive dietary protein patterns and compare their nutrient adequacy (using PANDiet probabilistic scoring). The findings revealed eight patterns that clearly discriminate protein intakes and were characterized by the intakes of one or more specific protein foods: ‘Processed meat’, ‘Poultry’, ‘Pork’, ‘Traditional’, ‘Milk’, ‘Take-away’, ‘Beef’ and ‘Fish’. ‘Fish eaters’ and ‘Milk drinkers’ had the highest overall nutrient adequacy, whereas that of ‘Pork’ and ‘Take-away eaters’ was the lowest. Nutrient adequacy could often be accounted for by the characteristics of the food contributing to protein intake: ‘Meat eaters’ had high probability of adequacy for iron and zinc, for example. We concluded that protein patterns constitute strong elements in the background structure of the dietary intake and are associated with the nutrient profile that they convey.
Highlights
The importance of different protein sources in human nutrition has seen a renewal of interest because of sustainability issues that must be addressed in the near future [1]
Four factors concerned one major food group which contributed more than 50% to the factor, while the four others were defined by several food groups contributing less than 50%
During this study we showed that the general adult population can be clearly discriminated in terms of its protein intake profile
Summary
The importance of different protein sources in human nutrition has seen a renewal of interest because of sustainability issues that must be addressed in the near future [1]. The subject has become highly topical since the development of various new dietary protein patterns in recent years, such as vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian diets [2,3]. Such patterns have been widely studied in specific populations for their association with the nutritional quality of diets [2,4,5] or mortality and morbidity [6,7,8]. The differences between the nutrient profiles of protein sources are not limited to protein and amino acid intakes
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