Sustainable Diets in Families in Copenhagen - Menus With Alternative Proteins Meals

The overall objective of this study is to investigate the impact of exposing paired participants (an adult and a child) to dinner menus of meals with alternative proteins (insect-based or plant-based products) on dietary pattern, intake of meat, and protein over a six-week intervention period. The insect-based menu is the experimental exposure and the plant-based menu is the positive control menu.

The hypothesis is that test menus of meals with alternative proteins will replace the meat consumed during dinner, resulting in maintaining the total protein intake while replacing 20% of the meat protein with alternative protein on a weekly basis.

The assumption is that the insect-based menus will replace meat protein similarly or to a larger extend than the positive control group receiving the comparable plant-based menu. The inclusion of the positive control group allows us to isolate the specific impact of exposure to insect-based menu from the exposure to dietary change of more familiar plant-based products.

The study is a randomized intervention trial recruiting 80 paired participants of an adult and a child age 8-10 year living together in a family, alone or with other family members. The paired participants are randomized to receive one of two menus of meals with alternative proteins, either plant-based or insect-based. Measurements (dietary records, questionnaires) as well as biological samples (urine collection) are taken primarily at baseline (week 0) and endline (week 6).