Zoom on Sustainable Diets

Currently, the global food system is responsible for 21-37% of global greenhouse gas emissions (IPCC, 2019 [1]), and is a key driver of deforestation, biodiversity loss and land degradation worldwide. At the same time, unhealthy food consumption patterns are responsible for a significant disease burden, associated with non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, ischemic heart disease and colorectal cancer (Afshin et al., 2019 [2]).

Several influential studies have underpinned the significant influence that diets can have on achieving both health and environmental targets (IPCC, 2019 [1]; Willett et al., 2019 [3]). Global challenges such as malnutrition, diet-related diseases, climate change and biodiversity loss, necessitate an integrated approach that considers both nutritional and environmental aspects in the selection of our diets. 

An increasing number of research projects are focused on this objective, especially in Europe under the umbrella of the Eat4Change European project, which aims at transitioning towards more sustainable consumption and production in Europe. Sustainable diets need to comply with nutritional and environmental targets and to be acceptable in terms of dietary and price changes expected from consumers. Sustainable diets need also to be thought of around the current food culture and environment of the population: consumption habits, typical food and availability of products. [4]

Such research necessitates quantifying both the nutritional added-value of products to build a balanced diet and to consider the environmental impact through a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) approach. 

Overall, optimized diets to reduce environmental impact and improved health outcomes include: 
  • A higher share of plant-based products, particularly those with a high nutritional quality, such as fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, plant-based dairy replacers and grain-based products. Those products also contribute to achieving the dietary guidelines in terms of fibers, vitamins and minerals. 
  • Animal-sourced products decrease considerably due to their relatively high environmental burden. They can be consumed in an optimized diet in low quantities. Dairy products should also be highly reduced and replaced by plan-based alternatives. 

Products with high-level of fats, salt and sugar such as snacks, confectionery, soft drinks and processed food can be reduced significantly, due to the poor nutritional added-value and despite the low environmental impact. [4]

references

[1] U.S. Global Change Research Program, 2016. The Impact of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: a scientific assessment. [Crimmins, A. et al]
[2] GBD diet collaborators, Afshin et al., 2017, Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study.
[3] Willett. W. et al., 2019, Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems.
[4] Pas C, Weert L. and Borekema R., 2021, Towards a sustainable, healthy and affordable Belgian diet.

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