Understanding Sustainable Diets: A Descriptive Analysis of the Determinants and Processes That Influence Diets and Their Impact on Health, Food Security, and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

The confluence of population, economic development, and environmental pressures resulting from increased globalization and industrialization reveal an increasingly resource-constrained world in which predictions point to the need to do more with less and in a “better” way. The concept of sustainable diets presents an opportunity to successfully advance commitments to sustainable development and the elimination of poverty, food and nutrition insecurity, and poor health outcomes. This study examines the determinants of sustainable diets, offers a descriptive analysis of these areas, and presents a causal model and framework from which to build. The major determinants of sustainable diets fall into 5 categories: 1) agriculture, 2) health, 3) sociocultural, 4) environmental, and 5) socioeconomic. When factors or processes are changed in 1 determinant category, such changes affect other determinant categories and, in turn, the level of “sustainability” of a diet. The complex web of determinants of sustainable diets makes it challenging for policymakers to understand the benefits and considerations for promoting, processing, and consuming such diets. To advance this work, better measurements and indicators must be developed to assess the impact of the various determinants on the sustainability of a diet and the tradeoffs associated with any recommendations aimed at increasing the sustainability of our food system.

Sustainable diets within sustainable food systems

“…Also, over time, some argue that income may become a weaker determinant of diets, giving thus broader scope for public policy to have a real influence in the future (50) . This deserves to be discussed.…”

“…Trends on dietary patterns towards more healthy items and towards more unhealthy items (see earlier) are not correlated which makes one wonder if it is not because these trends are driven by different policies and incentives, tendencies for increase of unhealthy items being driven by marketing and promotion of more healthy items by government policies (19) . There could also be reluctance from policy makers to propose changes that might have a negative effect on economic sectors (50) . Conversely, too simple messages can have detrimental impacts on nutrition.…”

Application of the Nutrition Functional Diversity indicator to assess food system contributions to dietary diversity and sustainable diets of Malawian households

“…Food security, of which nutrient adequacy is an essential condition, is the ultimate objective of a sustainable food system (18) , but only recently have conservation policies begun to incorporate food security objectives (20) . Developing effective policies to support sustainable food systems is hindered by a lack of metrics that are useful in understanding how diets can improve population health while conserving environmental resources (21) . Previous research has demonstrated how the Functional Diversity indicator (22) , developed by ecologists to evaluate the impact of biodiversity in natural and managed systems (23) and to test the resilience of those systems (24) , can be adapted to describe the diversity of nutrients in cropping systems.…”

Med Diet 4.0: the Mediterranean diet with four sustainable benefits

“…In recent years, within the international debate on sustainability, food security and nutrition (1,2) , sustainable diets have emerged as a challenging public health nutrition issue (3)(4)(5)(6)(7) as well as a critical issue for sustainable food systems (8)(9)(10) . The incorporation of sustainability aspects into dietary guidelines has been increasingly discussed over the past decades to make diets healthier for consumers as well as for the environment.…”