Abstract
It is the position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior that environmental sustainability should be inherent in dietary guidance, whether working with individuals or groups about their dietary choices or in setting national dietary guidance. Improving the nutritional health of a population is a long-term goal that requires ensuring the long-term sustainability of the food system. Current environmental trends, including those related to climate change, biodiversity loss, land degradation, water shortages, and water pollution, threaten long-term food security and are caused in part by current diets and agricultural practices. Addressing these problems while producing more food for a growing population will require changes to current food systems. Dietary choices have a significant role in contributing to environmental impacts, which could be lessened by consuming fewer overconsumed animal products and more plant-based foods while reducing excess energy intake and the amount of food wasted. Discussion of sustainability within governmental dietary guidance is common in many countries, is consistent with previous US guidelines, and is within the scope of authorizing legislation. Dietary choices are a personal matter, but many American consumers are motivated by a concern for the environment and would welcome sound advice from credentialed nutrition professionals. More opportunities are needed for developing such interdisciplinary knowledge among nutritionists.
Highlights
It is the position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) that environmental sustainability should be inherent in dietary guidance, whether working with individuals or groups about their dietary choices or in setting national dietary guidance
Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior Volume 51, Number 1, 2019 generations.”[1]. Based on existing evidence, the DGAC asserted that a diet higher in plant-based foods and lower in animal-based foods is healthier and associated with a lower environmental impact than the current U.S diet, and that this could be achieved without excluding any food groups.[1]
The final Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA),[2] produced by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) and the Department of Health and Human Services, make no mention of this issue. This raises a series of questions the current authors attempt to address in this article: Should we, as a society, care about the environmental sustainability of the food system? Does what we eat have a significant impact on the environment? Is dietary guidance compatible with efforts to promote such sustainability? Why was the DGAC discussion on sustainability not included? In answering these questions, this article lays out the scientific rationale for the SNEB’s position statement
Summary
It is the position of the Society for Nutrition Education and Behavior (SNEB) that environmental sustainability should be inherent in dietary guidance, whether working with individuals or groups about their dietary choices or in setting national dietary guidance. Discussing the latest research on this in a chapter on food sustainability and food safety, they stated: consistent evidence indicates that, in general, a dietary pattern that is higher in plant-based foods, such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds, and lower in animal based foods is more health promoting and is associated with lesser environmental impact ([greenhouse gas] emissions and energy, land, and water use) than is the current average U.S diet.[1] This is a straightforward, even modest reading of the overwhelming body of scientific evidence on both the relationships between diet and health and those between diet and the environment, which has been reinforced with an updated systematic review by these experts.[100] To allay concerns that the DGAC was recommending exclusion of any particular food or food group, they went on to say, “a diet that is more environmentally sustainable than the average U.S diet can be achieved without excluding any food groups.”[1]
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