What if there were no dairy?

What should our diet look like if we want to live in a healthy and sustainable way in times of an ever growing world population? We at FrieslandCampina ask ourselves this question every day again. We want to contribute to healthy - and tasty - food for our consumers, all over the world. What role does dairy play in this?

“Healthy food is one of the most important factors for a healthy life”, Cécile Singh-Povel, researcher in the Expert Team Nutrition, states. Cécile’s job at the FrieslandCampina Innovation Centre is to do research into healthy food at the interface between food and climate. “To FrieslandCampina it is clear: we do not only want healthy nutrition, but a healthy planet as well. In the meantime, any food manufacturer has influence on nature and climate. From soil to plate, we all make our contribution. My work includes looking at the health value of dairy and the effect dairy has on our environment. How do these two relate and are they in good balance?”

Animal-based or plant-based?

Which food products do fit in with a healthy and sustainable diet? According to many scientific studies, a healthy and sustainable diet includes a lot of plant-based food products, such as grains, legumes, vegetables and fruit. This is supplemented with animal-based products, such as a small piece of meat and fish and some portions of dairy. Cécile: “Research has taught us that we have to better balance the quantity of plant-based and animal-based nutrition. Of course, this depends on the area in which people live. In Europa, we have to eat more vegetable products and the consumption of meat, snacks and soft drinks is to be reduced. Various studies have shown that the consumption of fish and dairy can remain at the same level. On the other hand, it would be good to somewhat increase the consumption of animal products, such as fish, meat and dairy, in developing countries with monotonous plant-based nutrition.

A source of calcium

Why can the intake of dairy remain at the same level in such a healthy and sustainable diet? After all, isn’t it true that dairy has quite a large impact on the climate? Cécile: “We are looking at the nutrients in milk and what they do in the body. To what extent do we need those nutrients and how well can the body digest them? This really plays an important role in weighing the pros and cons. International scientific research has shown that there is a favourable relation between dairy and growth of children, health of muscles and bones, protection against intestinal cancer, protection against cavities in teeth and prevention of malnutrition. Dairy is an important source of calcium, protein and vitamins B2 and B12.”

Less than half

“If we eliminate this group of nutrients from our daily diet, but we still want to comply with the dietary recommendations, we have to eat really a lot more vegetables and legumes to compensate the shortage of nutrients. Strongly increasing the production of vegetables and legumes also has its impact on the climate. We in Western Europe are able to produce dairy in a highly efficient way. Growing really a lot of extra vegetables and legumes virtually cancels this out. The impact of dairy produced by FrieslandCampina is already less than half the global average.”

Good and tasty

So no problem at all then? “In the coming years, we will reduce our greenhouse gas emissions by more than one third again. However, we also take the global need of essential nutrients into consideration. Therefore, it is our duty to take the best out of milk for the global consumer, for good nutrition and, of course, because we enjoy the taste of it. All this will eventually be done in a climate-neutral way with more biodiversity. This is what we are working on and I am proud of it.”