Diet plays a critical role in shaping the health and well-being of both individuals and populations. Healthy, safe diets help to protect against malnutrition in all its forms, as well as non-communicable diseases (NCDs), including diabetes, heart disease, stroke and cancer, and foodborne diseases caused by physical, chemical or biological hazards. The balance between the amount of foods coming from animals (animal-source foods) and from plants (plant-source foods) is an important component of healthy diets. Animal-source foods are a good source of highly bioavailable protein and key vitamins and minerals, but consumption of certain types and at certain levels has been linked to increased risk of diet-related NCDs. Consumption of plant-source foods has been linked to decreased risk of diet-related NCDs but diets consisting almost exclusively of plant-source foods may increase risk of nutrient deficiencies. A growing body of evidence also suggests that the food systems used to produce animal- and plant-source foods can impact the environment in different and significant ways, including the emission of greenhouse gases and water and land use.
To provide much-needed, evidence-informed guidance on this important topic, WHO has brought together experts from all over the globe, with a wide range of relevant expertise to develop a guideline on optimal intake of animal-source foods, following the WHO guideline development process. The work of the guideline development group (GDG) will be complemented by the development of a comprehensive implementation framework that will take into consideration microbial and chemical risks associated with animal- and plant-source foods. It will be carried out in parallel by a separate expert group, the risk-benefit assessment group (RBAG).
List of members
Geeta Appannah
Associate Professor of Community Nutrition, Universiti Putra Malaysia, Serdang, Selangor, Malaysia
Tesfaye Hailu Bekele
Researcher, Wageningen University & Research, Wageningen, Netherlands
Jalila El Ati
Professor of Nutrition and Physiology, Head of the Studies and Planning Department, National Institute of Nutrition and Food Technology (INNTA), Tunis, Tunisia
Nita Forouhi
Professor of Population Health and Nutrition and Programme Leader of the Nutritional Epidemiology programme of the MRC Epidemiology Unit, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK
Timothy Key
Professor of Epidemiology, Cancer Epidemiology Unit, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Marian Kjellevold
Research Professor, Nutrition, Institute of Marine Research (IMR), Bergen, Norway
Pulani Lanerolle
Chair Professor of Biochemistry & Molecular Biology, Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, University of Colombo, Colombo, Sri Lanka
Maria Laura Louzada
Professor, Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo (USP), São Paulo Brazil
Nasrin Omidvar
Professor of Community Nutrition and Chair of the Department of Community Nutrition, Shahid Beheshti University of medical Sciences, Tehran, Iran
Juan Rivera
Emeritus Researcher in Medical Sciences, Centre for Population Health Research of the National Institute of Public Health and Professor at the School of Public Health in Mexico, Cuernavaca, Mexico
Murray Skeaff
Emeritus Professor, University of Otago, Dunedin, New Zealand
Reema Fayez Tayyem
Professor of Nutrition, Department of Human Nutrition, College of Health Sciences, Qatar University, Doha, Qatar
Ellen Trolle
Senior researcher, Research Group for Nutrition, Sustainability and Health Promotion, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Methodological expert
Holger Schünemann
Professor of Public Health and Preventive Medicine and Director, Clinical Epidemiology and Research Centre (CERC), Humanitas University, Milan, Italy
Ty Beal
Senior Technical Specialist, Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), Washington DC, USA
Zhengming Chen
Richard Peto Professor of Epidemiology, Nuffield Department of Population Health, University of Oxford, Oxford, UK
Umi Fahmida
Senior Researcher, SEAMEO - Regional Centre for Food and Nutrition (RECFON), East Jakarta, Indonesia
Edward Giovannucci
Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Departments of Nutrition and Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Joyce Kinabo
Professor of Human Nutrition, Department of Human Nutrition and Consumer Sciences, Sokoine University of Agriculture, Morogoro, Tanzania
Amos Laar
Professor of Public Health Nutrition, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana
Mark Lawrence
Professor of Healthy and Sustainable Food Systems, Institute for Physical Activity and Nutrition, Deakin University, Burwood, Australia
Demosthenes Panagiotakos
Professor of Biostatistics, Research Methods, and Epidemiology, Harokopio University, Athens, Greece
Hettie Schönfeldt
Professor, Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Natural and Agricultural Sciences and extraordinary lecturer in the School of Health Systems and Public Health, University of Pretoria, Pretoria, South Africa
Sumathi Swaminathan
Associate Professor, Division of Nutrition, St John’s Research Institute, Bangalore, India
Daniel Tomé
Honorary Professor in Human Nutrition, Paris Institute of technology for life, food, and environmental sciences, Université Paris-Saclay (AgroParisTech), Paris, France
Marianne Uhre Jakobsen
Associate Professor, Research Group for Risk-Benefit, National Food Institute, Technical University of Denmark (DTU), Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Zhenyu Yang
Research Professor, National Institute for Nutrition and Health, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China
Publications
Saturated fatty acid and trans-fatty acid intake for adults and children: WHO guideline
This guideline provides updated, evidence-informed guidance on the intake of saturated fatty acids and trans-fatty acids to reduce the risk of diet-related...
Total fat intake for the prevention of unhealthy weight gain in adults and children: WHO guideline
This guideline provides updated, evidence-informed guidance on the percentage of total fat in the diet to reduce the risk of unhealthy weight gain. This...
This guideline provides updated, evidence-informed guidance on the intake of carbohydrates to reduce the risk of diet-noncommunicable diseases in adults...
Red and processed meat in the context of health and the environment: many shades of red and green: information...
There is growing international consensus that food systems transformation is important to address the challenges of malnutrition in all its forms, the...