Toward sustainable dietary patterns: new insights on plant-based diets and pulses consumption.

Plant-based diets have been recognized to positively impact health, by contributing to the maintenance of a healthy status and to the prevention of non-communicable diseases (i.e. cardiovascular disease, diabetes). The positive health benefits of these diets are related to the intake of plant-foods they promote, such as vegetables, fruits, cereals, legumes and nuts and to the reduced intake of animal derived foods. Moreover, plant-based foods have a lower environmental impact compared to animal derived foods, making these diets environment-friendly. Concerning plant foods, pulses emerge as a nutritionally valuable food. Indeed, pulse regular consumption is related to beneficial health outcomes. In addition, pulses represent an important sustainable protein source alternative to animal derived foods. Indeed, it must be underlined that pulses production is more sustainable than animal derived food production, contributing to make them a dietary protein source to be preferred. In this perspective, this dissertation presents research studies aimed to support plant-based diets as healthy and sustainable dietary regimens starting from the promotion of pulse consumption. In this perspective, pulses intake and the causes of pulses disregard among consumers were initially investigated as a starting point to study strategies to foster and sensitize consumers on pulse intake, such as the designing of innovative pulse-based products, in collaboration with Fertitecnica Colfiorito s.r.l company, and the development of targeted nutrition education interventions. Furthermore, given the fundamental impact of a heathy diet on health, the effects of plant-based diets and dietary proteins quality on body composition parameters and resting metabolic rate were evaluated. As pulses are gluten-free foods, also their role in gluten-free diets was underlined. Adhering to gluten-free diets is often complex for celiac patients causing nutritional imbalances. Therefore, this work intended to investigate the possible role of a specific micronutrient, vitamin D, in celiac disease onset. Moreover, the development of an on-line nutritional education course for the management of gluten-free diets was described. Lastly, the attention was focused on the nutritional properties of rice, one of the most commonly consumed cereal among celiac patients, and its applicability in gluten-free diet.