On Thursday September 17, 2026, Dominique van Wonderen (WUR) will defend her PhD thesis Iron Absorption and Food Substitution in Diet Modeling – Approaches to Designing Healthy, Sustainable, and Acceptable Diets.

This thesis has been supervised by prof. dr.ir. Alida Melse-Boonstra (WUR) and dr.ir. Joke van Lemmen-Gerdessen (WUR).

The ceremony will take place at Wageningen University & Research, Omnia (building 105), Auditorium, from 10.30-12.00.

Summary

Current diets, especially those high in animal-based foods, negatively affect both human and planetary health. Moving toward more plant-based diets can help, but two challenges remain: ensuring adequate nutrient intake and keeping diets acceptable for consumers. Iron is a particular concern because iron is less easily absorbed from plant foods than from animal foods. Diet modelling is a technique that can be used to design healthy and sustainable diets, but it often uses simplified assumptions about iron absorption and consumer acceptance. This thesis shows how healthier, more sustainable, and acceptable diets can be designed by using diet-dependent iron absorption equations instead of a constant absorption factor, and by modelling acceptability at food-item level instead of food-group level.