Education to Promote Healthy and Sustainable Eating Habits: A Bibliometric Analysis

Abstract

Food production accounts for a substantial part of human activities’ negative impact on planetary environmental stability. Although environmental education and education for sustainable development could both promote changes in this area, research often does not focus on their potential to build healthy and sustainable eating habits. Here, a bibliometric map of the scientific literature is outlined, revealing trends and opportunities for research on this topic. The SPAR-4-SLR protocol was used to collect a large sample (RQ1 sample: n = 2067) and, subsequently, a narrow sample (RQ2 sample: n = 256) of research works on this topic. The sampling process and data treatment were undertaken in RStudio. The bibliometric analysis shows that scientific research in this area is increasing exponentially in quantity (R2 = 0.926). However, the model also indicates that quality standards have been decreasing (β = −0.951 p < 0.001), with a high adjustment (R2 = 0.803). Cross-statistical corroboration points in the same direction (r = −0.541 p < 0.01). Authorship quality has low consistency among publications focused on eating-habit education from an environmental sustainability perspective. The emerging topics are meat consumption, behavior, attitudes, and the Mediterranean diet. This research unveils gaps to be explored in future research on education for sustainable development (and environmental education) to foster healthy and sustainable eating habits, and contributes to the discussion on the quality standards of scientific research.