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.

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.

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.

Shifting to the low-meat EAT-Lancet diet across Europe could reduce overall demand for many crops and hence provide resilience against disruptions to food supply, notably those caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, according to this paper. The shift could also provide environmental co-benefits through increased carbon sequestration and reduced blue water use and greenhouse gas emissions.

This paper presents a “roadmap” towards achieving net zero in global food systems by 2050 - a plan which has recently been called for by institutional investors. The authors explore 64 pathways to net zero based on implementing varying levels of four major food systems interventions: increasing production efficiency through shifting to low-emissions practices; sequestering carbon in croplands and grasslands; changing diets to reduce the global production of protein from livestock; and adopting a diverse range of “new-horizon” - i.e. emerging - technologies such as methane inhibitors and perennial row crops.

This book discusses how the net zero transition and associated changes in land use, farming and diets could affect the UK food system.

This report from the Global Alliance for the Future of Food describes ten case studies from across the globe of food initiatives that promote human, animal and ecological health, ranging from Thai government policy on reducing antimicrobial resistance to a land and food-based approach to Indigenous healthcare in Canada and an organic fruit and vegetable distributor in the Netherlands. It is aimed at healthcare and public health professionals.

This report from the OECD Trade and Agriculture Directorate assesses the opportunities and challenges of three alternatives to meat: plant-based (marketed as nearly equivalent to meat), insects and cultured meat. Its modelling results suggest that a shift from meat towards meat alternatives in high and upper middle income countries could lower global land use and greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and land use; it would also lower global prices of meats, soybeans and cereals, producing benefits for consumers but putting economic pressure on farmers.

This paper, co-authored by TABLE research director Elin Röös, sets out five storylines for the development of agroecology in the European Union and models the impacts of each scenario on progress towards several established or proposed policy targets. It finds that significant dietary change and waste reduction are necessary if agroecological farming is to contribute to meeting the policy goals.