Many health professionals believe key plant foods are underrepresented in national dietary guidelines, according to new research from ProVeg International and the University of Göttingen, Germany.
The study, titled “From Policy to Practice: A Global Analysis to Identify Factors That Influence the Implementation of Food-Based Dietary Guidelines by Health and Nutrition Professionals” and published in Current Developments in Nutrition in September 2026, set out to identify what shapes the implementation and uptake of food-based dietary guidelines from the perspective of health and nutrition professionals. It was carried out in two phases: the first involved 20 qualitative interviews with professionals across six continents, and the second turned the resulting insights into a quantitative global survey.
The findings showed that 80.5% of surveyed professionals use national food-based dietary guidelines in their work, yet 57.6% rated them only “somewhat” or “slightly” helpful for promoting healthy and sustainable food choices. Pulses were the food group most commonly flagged as missing, with 62.7% of respondents saying they were underrepresented, followed by plant-based milk alternatives at 47.5% and nuts and seeds at 42.4%.
The survey also found that responsibility for healthy eating is often placed on individual consumers, despite 65.3% of the health professionals surveyed backing measures such as tax relief and subsidies to widen access to nutritious, sustainable food. Retailers, restaurants, and producers were all identified as being able to make healthier choices easier.
Anna-Lena Klapp, head of research at ProVeg International and lead author of the study, said, “Dietary guidelines have enormous potential to shape healthier and more sustainable food systems, but they need to work in the real world… If we want dietary guidelines to drive meaningful change, we need coordinated action across the food system to make healthy and sustainable choices easier for everyone.”
