Flemish consumer attitudes towards more sustainable food choices

Vanhonacker, Filiep; Loo, Ellen J. Van; Gellynck, Xavier

doi:10.1016/j.appet.2012.11.003

Cited by 335 publications

(312 citation statements)

References 27 publications

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“…estimated to be approximately 2 % in the French (46) and US (47) populations). In addition, some studies suggest that a large proportion of the population is not yet ready to consume a fully plantbased diet (48,49) . According to the present results, 30 % GHGE reduction could be achieved in a nutritionally adequate diet by increasing fruits and vegetables while maintaining intake of meat/fish/eggs at approximately 100 g/d, mainly by substituting ruminant and deli meats by fish products.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How low can dietary greenhouse gas emissions be reduced without impairing nutritional adequacy, affordability and acceptability of the diet? A modelling study to guide sustainable food choices

Pérignon

Gabriel

Ferrari

et al. 2016

Public Health Nutr.

165

145

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Objective: To assess the compatibility between reduction of diet-related greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) and nutritional adequacy, acceptability and affordability dimensions of diet sustainability. Design: Dietary intake, nutritional composition, GHGE and prices were combined for 402 foods selected among those most consumed by participants of the Individual National Study on Food Consumption. Linear programming was used to model diets with stepwise GHGE reductions, minimized departure from observed diet and three scenarios of nutritional constraints: none (FREE), on macronutrients (MACRO) and for all nutrient recommendations (ADEQ). Nutritional quality was assessed using the mean adequacy ratio (MAR) and solid energy density (SED). Setting: France. Subjects: Adults (n 1899). Results: In FREE and MACRO scenarios, imposing up to 30 % GHGE reduction did not affect the MAR, SED and food group pattern of the observed diet, but required substitutions within food groups; higher GHGE reductions decreased diet cost, but also nutritional quality, even with constraints on macronutrients. Imposing all nutritional recommendations (ADEQ) increased the fruits and vegetables quantity, reduced SED and slightly increased diet cost without additional modifications induced by the GHGE constraint up to 30 % reduction; higher GHGE reductions decreased diet cost but required non-trivial dietary shifts from the observed diet. Not all the nutritional recommendations could be met for GHGE reductions ≥70 %. Conclusions: Moderate GHGE reductions (≤30 %) were compatible with nutritional adequacy and affordability without adding major food group shifts to those induced by nutritional recommendations. Higher GHGE reductions either impaired nutritional quality, even when macronutrient recommendations were imposed, or required non-trivial dietary shifts compromising acceptability to reach nutritional adequacy.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

How low can dietary greenhouse gas emissions be reduced without impairing nutritional adequacy, affordability and acceptability of the diet? A modelling study to guide sustainable food choices

Pérignon

Gabriel

Ferrari

et al. 2016

Public Health Nutr.

165

145

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…We used a centroid clustering method with the squared Euclidean distance as the dissimilarity measure. Table 3 presents the items we have included in the cluster analysis, as well as the five clusters that resulted from this procedure (for further details, see Dagevos et al 2012; for a comparison with another recent cluster analysis, see Vanhonacker et al 2012).…”

Section: Modes Of Meat Reduction In Future Researchmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sustainability and meat consumption: is reduction realistic?

Dagevos

Voordouw

2013

Sustainability: Science, Practice and Policy

129

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Meat is critical with respect to sustainability because meat products are among the most energy-intensive and ecologically burdensome foods. Empirical studies of the meat-consumption frequency of Dutch consumers show that, apart from meat-avoiders and meat-eaters, many people are meat-reducers that eat no meat at least one day per week. Meat-consumption frequencies provide empirical evidence for different modes of "flexitarianism," including light, medium, and heavy flexitarians. In particular, the existence of heavy flexitarians suggests that the customary position of meat and other animal-based dietary products in the food hierarchy is not inviolable. To improve our understanding of meat reduction, cluster analysis adds information about differences across flexitarians. Given the enormous environmental impact of animal-protein consumption and the apparent sympathy of consumers for meat reduction, it is surprising that politicians and policy makers demonstrate little, if any, interest in strategies to reduce meat consumption and to encourage more sustainable eating practices.

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“…However, research has shown that consumers often underestimate the impacts of meat consumption on the environment, in general (Lea & Worsley, 2008;Tobler, Visschers, & Siegrist, 2011), and on climate change, in particular (Bostrom et al, 2012;Skamp, Boyes, & Stanisstreet, 2013;Truelove & Parks, 2012;Vanhonacker, Van Loo, Gellynck, & Verbeke, 2013). Hence, an important question is whether the transition to a low-carbon society requires a special focus on food-related options for consumers, such as eating less meat and more seasonal food, as compared to energy-related options, such as using energy saving light bulbs.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%