Moving towards more sustainable diets: Is there potential for a personalised approach in practice?

Abstract

Discourse on the relationship between food production, healthy eating and sustainability has become increasingly prominent and controversial in recent years. Research groups often take one perspective when reporting on sustainable diets, and several often neglect considerations for the multiple aspects that make a diet truly sustainable, such as cultural acceptability, differences in nutritional requirements amongst the population and the efficiency of long‐term dietary change. Plant‐based diets are associated with lower greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) and have been linked with better health outcomes, including lower risk of diet‐related chronic disease. However, foods associated with higher GHGE, such as lean red meat, fish and dairy, have beneficial nutritional profiles and contribute significantly to micronutrient intakes. Some research has shown that diets associated with lower GHGE can be less nutritionally adequate. Several countries now include sustainability recommendations in dietary guidelines but use vague language such as “increase” or “consume regularly” when referring to plant‐based foods. General population‐based nutrition advice has poor adherence and does not consider differences in nutritional needs. Although modelling studies show potential to significantly reduce environmental impact with dietary changes, personalising such dietary recommendations has not been studied. Adapting recommendations to the individual through reproducible methods of personalised nutrition has been shown to lead to more favourable and longer‐lasting dietary changes compared to population‐based nutrition advice. When considering sustainable healthy dietary guidelines, personalised feedback may increase the acceptability, effectiveness and nutritional adequacy of the diet. A personalised approach has the potential for delivering a new structure of more sustainable healthy food‐based dietary guidelines. This review evaluates the potential to develop personalised sustainable healthy food‐based dietary guidelines and discusses potential implications for policy and practice.

What is preventing individual climate action? Impact awareness and perceived difficulties in changing transport and food behaviour

“…There may also be benefits to improving the clarity of environmental labelling on foods to help consumers choose lower-impact alternatives (e.g. Osawe et al, 2023) or developing methods for delivering personalised recommendations to individuals (Davies et al, 2023).…”

Sustainability in dietetics means embracing complexity, contributing and collaborating

“…Furthermore, working with individuals is complicated by the need to consider diets within the context of each person's specific health needs and lives. Davies et al 15 suggest personalised dietary approaches to increase acceptability, effectiveness and nutritional adequacy of healthy and sustainable dietary patterns. Hashim et al 16 have developed a reliable, valid questionnaire that can be used to inform evidence-based interventions to increase youth uptake of sustainable diets.…”

“…However, they identified a mismatch between students' knowledge and their current dietary practices and their willingness to change towards a more sustainable diet. This mismatch presents a challenge in the drive for more sustainable eating patterns and perhaps this can be addressed through a personalised approach, per Davies et al 15…”

Editorial: Dietary change strategies for sustainable diets and their impact on human health, volume II

“…To mitigate the environmental impact of our food system, which is closely tied to international health and our sustainability goals, implementing dietary-change strategies presents a viable solution to address this issue. Projections indicate a continued shift toward more sustainable diets on a global scale in the coming decades, with a concurrent positive effect on human health (Davies et al, 2023).…”