Greenhouse Gas Emissions Associated With the Mexican Diet: Identifying Social Groups With the Largest Carbon Footprint

Abstract

BackgroundMost studies of the climate footprint of diets have been conducted in countries in the global north, but the majority of the world population lives in global south countries. We estimated total dietary greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) in Mexico, examined the contribution of major food and beverage groups, and assessed variation across social groups.MethodsWe linked individual-level dietary data from the Mexican National Health and Nutrition Survey 2018 to the SHARP Indicators Database, containing GHGE estimates for 182 primary food and beverages.ResultsMean dietary GHGE was 3.9 kg of carbon dioxide equivalent per person per day. Dietary GHGE is highest among those in young adulthood and middle age versus adolescents and older adults, and among males, those with higher educational attainment, higher socioeconomic status, that do not speak an indigenous language, and that live in urban areas.ConclusionThe Mexican diet has a much lower carbon footprint than diets in other Latin American countries for which such estimates are available. In contrast to patterns observed in Argentina and Brazil, dietary GHGE was lowest in those in lower socioeconomic and educational strata and in rural areas. A better understanding of the differences in diet sustainability between and within countries will be needed for developing global and local strategies that meet the environmental sustainability goals.

Sustainable-psycho-nutritional intervention programme for a sustainable diet (the ‘NutriSOS’ study) and its effects on eating behaviour, diet quality, nutritional status, physical activity, metabolic biomarkers, gut microbiota and water and carbon footprints in Mexican population: study protocol of an mHealth randomised controlled trial

“…1.1) Food and nutrient needs, food security, accessibility: P: diet quality, and food needs; S: nutrients and energy requirements. Subsequently, this nutritional-sustainable food guide will be accompanied by a system of equivalent foods (38) that, in addition to incorporating the food's nutrients, will integrate their environmental impact by dietary water footprint (6) , and carbon footprint (7,97) , food prices, and cultural characteristics of the main consumed foods in Mexico (6,12) . https://doi.org/10.1017/S0007114523000843 Published online by Cambridge University Press…”

“…The change from the traditional Mexican diet to a Western diet (i.e., increases in animal and ultra-processed foods intake and decreases in the consumption of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts), generated by the nutritional transition, has not only propitiated a prevalence of more than 75% of metabolic alterations (obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, dyslipidemia) (2)(3)(4) and in the gut microbiota of the Mexican population (5) , but it has also generated the water and carbon footprints of their diet to be among the highest's in the world with more than 8,000 Liters per person per day (L p -1 d -1 ) (6) and 3.9 Kg CO 2 eq p -1 d -1 (7) , respectively. This is linked to the aggravation of climate change, with increases of more than 1.0 ºC in the average atmospheric temperatures since the industrial revolution in the year 1760 (8) and the current water crisis that Mexico is going through, which affects 85% of the territory and has been referred to as the worst water drought in history, affecting the water supply of millions of Mexicans (2,9) .…”

Towards the characterisation of sustainable diet’s gut microbiota composition and functions: A narrative review

“…Nevertheless, the principal problem regarding recovering traditional diets is to ensure that the population adheres to these kinds of dietary patterns. Currently, it has been reported that the Mexican population is consuming a Western diet with high environmental implications and detrimental to their health (Aburto et al, 2022; Batis et al, 2021; López-Olmedo et al, 2022).…”

“…Similarly, greenhouse gas emissions vary greatly among meat types. Beef, for example, reaches more than 34 CO 2 eq/kg, while the carbon footprint of chicken is 8.58 CO 2 eq/ kg and of fish is 11.62 CO 2 eq/kg (López-Olmedo et al, 2022). Besides, most dietary guidelines widely recommend the intake of nuts as a protein and/or healthy fats source (Armet et al, 2022).…”

“…Nevertheless, avocados' production leads to critical environmental impacts (De la Vega-Rivera and Merino-Pérez, 2021). Although the avocado crop itself has a relatively low environmental impact, with around 900 L/kg of water footprint (Mekonnen and Hoekstra, 2010) and 1.34 CO 2 eq/kg (López-Olmedo et al, 2022), the agribusiness dedicated to massive exports in countries like Mexico has brought severe environmental consequences (De la Vega-Rivera and Merino-Pérez, 2021;Macias, 2015).…”