Abstract

The food environment is a critical place in the food system to implement interventions to support sustainable diets and address the global syndemic of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change, because it contains the total scope of options within which consumers make decisions about which foods to acquire and consume. In this paper, we build on existing definitions of the food environment, and provide an expanded definition that includes the parameter of sustainability properties of foods and beverages, in order to integrate linkages between food environments and sustainable diets. We further provide a graphical representation of the food environment using a socio-ecological framework. Next, we provide a typology with descriptions of the different types of food environments that consumers have access to in low-, middle-, and high-income countries including wild, cultivated, and built food environments. We characterize the availability, affordability, convenience, promotion and quality (previously termed desirability), and sustainability properties of food and beverages for each food environment type. Lastly, we identify a methodological approach with potential objective and subjective tools and metrics for measuring the different properties of various types of food environments. The definition, framework, typology, and methodological toolbox presented here are intended to facilitate scholars and practitioners to identify entry points in the food environment for implementing and evaluating interventions that support sustainable diets for enhancing human and planetary health.

Highlights

  • Nourishing a growing population in ways that support human and planetary health is one of the greatest challenges of the Anthropocene

  • It is anticipated that climate variability and human-induced climate change will continue to exacerbate malnutrition [3], food insecurity [7], and hunger [8], leading to an even greater burden of disease attributed to diets

  • There is a need to identify and validate metrics, tools, and methodologies for measuring the various parameters of each type of food environment [38]. In recognition of these needs, the overall goal of this paper is to present the following objectives: (1) expanded definition of the food environment that provides clarity to previous definitions as well as integrates the attribute of sustainability; (2) a framework positioning the food environment within the food system based on a socio-ecological model; (3) a food environment typology that includes both natural and built food environments; and (4) a methodological approach accompanied with potential tools and methods for measuring the elements of the food environment based on the food environment typology in low, middle, and high-income countries in the context of global change

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Summary

Introduction

Malnutrition in all its forms, including overweight, obesity, undernutrition, and their coexistence, is the leading cause of death globally and affects every country [1,2,3]. It is anticipated that climate variability and human-induced climate change will continue to exacerbate malnutrition [3], food insecurity [7], and hunger [8], leading to an even greater burden of disease attributed to diets. The three pandemics of obesity, undernutrition, and climate change have been described as a global syndemic given their clustering in time and place, interactions at biological, psychological, and/or social levels, as well as common large-scale drivers and determinants [3]

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