Sustainable healthy diets | TableDebates

Cooked salmon on a dish with a green salad. Image credit: cattalin, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence.

Journal articles

Wide variation in carbon footprint and quality of US diets

This paper calculates the carbon footprints and dietary quality score of six dietary patterns based on consumption data from the United States: vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, keto, paleo and omnivorous diets. All of these diets were loosely defined (e.g. vegetarian diets are those with less than 14 grams of meat and seafood per day) to allow some deviation from the strict conventional definitions of these diets. Pescatarian diets scored as the most healthy, and vegan diets had the lowest carbon footprint.

Fried egg. Image credits: rishigarfield, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence.

Journal articles

Micronutrient gaps in the EAT–Lancet planetary health diet

This paper estimates that the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet, which is low in animal products, does not provide sufficient levels of vitamin B12, calcium, iron and zinc. The calculations assume no supplementation or fortification. The authors recommend modifying the EAT-Lancet diet by increasing the levels of animal sourced foods and reducing foods high in phytate.

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Journal articles

Impacts of the EAT-Lancet diet on European farming

This paper explores how the agricultural sector in the European Union (EU) might be affected by partial shifts in European consumers’ diets towards the EAT-Lancet reference diet. The impacts vary by sector, with the production of animal-sourced foods likely to fall and production of fruit and vegetables likely to increase. Overall, agricultural income is projected to rise as a result of the dietary shifts.

A couple of bowls of vegetarian meals on a table

Series 4: Vegan or flexitarian - which diet is healthier?

In the quest for sustainable healthy diets, it is common to hear recommendations to reduce the amount of animal-sourced foods consumed in high-income countries. But what level of reduction is optimal for human health? For the best nutritional and health outcomes, should we be eating low-meat “flexitarian” diets, or entirely plant-based diets? In this Letterbox exchange, nutrition researcher Flaminia Ortenzi and physician Dr Tushar Mehta share their perspectives on the relative health and nutritional impacts of purely vegan diets compared to those that contain low levels of animal-sourced foods. Flaminia focuses on the nutrient density of different foods, while Tushar discusses data on the health outcomes of different diets.

Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Diets

Routledge Handbook of Sustainable Diets

This book gives an overview of current thinking on sustainable diets, including sections on environmental sustainability, health and wellbeing, education and public engagement, social policies and food environments, alternative food movements, economics and trade, measuring food sustainability, and case studies on food sovereignty around the world.

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Journal articles

Environmental sustainability in national dietary guidelines

This article offers a global review of how different countries account for environmental sustainability within their food-based dietary guidelines (FBDGs). It finds that of the 83 countries assessed, 37 mention environmental sustainability but few give detailed advice on how to adopt a sustainable diet. The paper counts how many countries mention each of 16 different guiding principles for sustainable healthy diets - for example, 23 countries mention reducing the consumption of animal-based foods. The paper mentions Denmark and Belgium as demonstrating “exemplary” discussion of sustainability in their FBDGs.

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Journal articles

Health impacts of Food Compass among US adults

The Food Compass scoring system is an algorithm developed by researchers at Tufts University to assess the healthfulness of different food types. It has attracted some controversy on social media because of its counterintuitive rankings of some foods. This paper finds that following a diet that scores higher on the Food Compass system is linked to better outcomes on several aspects of health as well as all-cause mortality.

Image: JerzyGorecki, Vegetables water droplets, Pixabay, Pixabay Licence

Journal articles

Sustainable diets often linked to moderately lower cancer risk

This paper reviews the evidence on how consumption of sustainable diets links to the risk of cancer in adults. It identified eight cohort studies, which were conducted in Europe and the United States and which used differing definitions of sustainable diets including definitions based on greenhouse gas emissions, food biodiversity, land use, pesticide exposure, adherence to the EAT-Lancet diet and score on a sustainability index. Most studies showed a modest correlation between higher adherence to sustainable diets and lower incidence of cancer and cancer mortality. However, most of the studies were considered to have a serious risk of bias because of confounding factors.

Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well

Food for Life: The New Science of Eating Well

In this book, epidemiologist Tim Spector sets out his approach to nutrition. He describes the importance of the microbiome, explores which foods are really “healthy” and “unhealthy” and discusses the impacts of food consumption on the environment. The book also contains many short chapters dedicated to specific food types, including fruit, legumes, fungi, meat and fermented dairy.