Abstract
This study evaluates the relationship between environmental impacts and diet quality through several environmental and nutritional indicators, using data from over 1400 participants across seven European countries in the Food4Me study. Comparisons of environmental impacts and dietary quality were evaluated across country, gender groups, and dietary patterns. While there was clear variability within the different subsets, there were large differences observed in both dietary quality and environmental impacts between cultures, genders, and dietary patterns. Individuals abstaining from red meat consistently had lower impacts in combination with lower consumption of harmful nutrients (saturated fats, sodium, and sugars) while maintaining average intake of beneficial nutrients. A ‘best practice’ diet with low impacts, adequate nutrient intake, and low saturated fats, sodium, and sugars, was constructed from the sample and used as a benchmark. Recorded eating patterns were compared to this recommended diet. On average, intakes of sweets, meats, and drinks should be decreased and intakes of vegetables and cereals increased, at varying rates depending on country and gender. However, the study shows a large spread of eating patterns and recommendations for lowering environmental impacts and increasing nutritional quality vary greatly among individuals.
Highlights
IntroductionPrevious research has been conducted examining environmental impacts associated with hypothetical dietary patterns (e.g. vegetarian) or hypothetical diets meeting given recommendations[5,10,11], food availability (based on a country’s import and export ratios and/or purchasing data)[12,13], and impacts at a meal level[14,15,16], data examining impacts from an individual’s habitual diet in combination with nutritional effects is limited[17,18,19] and often based only on one specific country
Previous research has been conducted examining environmental impacts associated with hypothetical dietary patterns or hypothetical diets meeting given recommendations[5,10,11], food availability[12,13], and impacts at a meal level[14,15,16], data examining impacts from an individual’s habitual diet in combination with nutritional effects is limited[17,18,19] and often based only on one specific country
Foods/dishes with a high impact in one category tended to have high impacts in the other categories, meaning that impacts among the different impact categories were fairly well correlated
Summary
Previous research has been conducted examining environmental impacts associated with hypothetical dietary patterns (e.g. vegetarian) or hypothetical diets meeting given recommendations[5,10,11], food availability (based on a country’s import and export ratios and/or purchasing data)[12,13], and impacts at a meal level[14,15,16], data examining impacts from an individual’s habitual diet in combination with nutritional effects is limited[17,18,19] and often based only on one specific country. Evaluating habitual diets allows for a direct comparison between an individual’s environmental impact and nutritional quality, as studies involving only hypothetical dietary patterns may miss the nuances associated with self-selected food intake, and studies utilizing food availability cannot measure the nutrient intake at an individual level. This research will quantify the climate change impacts from an individual’s food intake, and the water scarcity footprint and land-use driven biodiversity loss. Environmental impacts will be investigated using reported dietary intakes from Food4Me, which represent real rather than hypothetical diets[30] These estimates of individual dietary intakes are from a study of adults who were broadly representative of the seven European countries from which they were recruited[31], and allow for assessment of impact and diet quality variability both within and among groups, and an evaluation of impacts in countries that have not yet been largely investigated. The relationship between diet quality and impacts will be explored, and the potential impact reduction of dietary changes assessed
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