The consumption of red or processed meat has been associated with various adverse health outcomes, such as diabetes type 2 (1), cardiovascular disease
(1), and cancer, particularly colorectal cancer (2). A higher
intake of red meat, in particular processed red meat, has
also been associated with higher all-cause mortality (3).
Several food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs) emphasize
the need for reducing the intake of red/processed meat (4).
Fish represents an alternative protein source to meat, and
increased consumption of fish is often recommended by
FBDGs (4). Also the report ‘Food, Nutrition, Physical
Activity, and the Prevention of Cancer: a Global Perspective’ from 2007 recommends replacing red meat with fish
or poultry (2). In Norway, fish consumption is higher than
in several other Western countries (5). Nevertheless, meat
consumption is still substantially higher than fish consumption, both according to previous Norwegian dietary
surveys (6, 7) and household budget surveys. Although the
Norwegian household budget survey from 2012 showed
that 35 g of fish (including shellfish) was purchased per
person per day, the corresponding figure for meat was
131 g per person per day (8). The Norwegian FBDGs
recommend an intake of 300450 g fish per week of which
at least 200 g should be oily fish (9). The most recent
Norwegian dietary survey in adults, Norkost 3, showed
that only 18% of the participants had an intake matching
this recommendation (10). Hence, a large proportion of
the population would benefit from an increased fish intake.
However, because a dinner meal most often contains more
than just a protein component, side dish choice is also
important to the complete nutritional profile of the meal
in question. Changing the main protein source of a meal
(e.g. from meat to fish) may also lead to alterations in side
dish choice. These changes may increase or decrease the
nutritional gain in quality, depending on the compositions
of the chosen side dishes. The aim of the present study was
to investigate whether side dish choice varied for red
meat versus fish dinners in a group of Norwegian adults.
We also compared the intakes of macronutrients and
selected micronutrients in red meat and fish dinners and
assessed whether the whole-day intakes of these nutrients
differed on days when each type of dinner was consumed.
Older individuals in the Norwegian population consume
more fish than younger age groups (10, 11), and side dish
choices may also vary according to age. Therefore, the
analyses of differences in side dish choices between red
meat and fish dinners were stratified according to age.