Low-carbon Diet Research Articles

How does COVID-19 distort the impact of information interventions on low-carbon diet transitions: a case of dairy consumption in China

PurposeThis paper examines the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on low-carbon consumption of dairy products through informational interventions. The empirical findings seek to enlighten developing countries' efforts in coping with climate change and potential dietary transitions.Design/methodology/approachA randomized controlled trial was designed to examine the effects of purpose-differentiated information interventions on individual dairy consumption. The experiment recruited and randomly assigned 1,002 college students into four groups to receive (or not) environmental or/and health information interventions.FindingsThe empirical analysis finds that health and combined information interventions have a positive impact on dairy consumption, while environmental information interventions' effect on dairy consumption is insignificant. In the context of the pandemic, health information interventions positively affected participants' perceptions and preferences for dairy products by delivering knowledge about their role in boosting immunity. However, environmental information interventions failed to do the same things as their insignificant effects on both perception and preference.Originality/valueMacro-external shocks, such as public health events, may offset the impact of universal information interventions promoting pro-environmental behaviors. For a smooth dietary transition to achieve long-term environmental sustainability, diverse stakeholders must be included in more individualized interventions to guide daily consumption, especially in developing countries with large populations.

Design of Teaching Aids for Children to Understand Digestive Tract and Low-Carbonate Diet

Commercially available teaching aids related to the human digestive tract were primarily provided in the form of human organ graphics or models for teaching. Such teaching aids often lacked practical operation and game-experiential learning methods, which were less likely to arouse children’s interest in learning. Thus, we designed a set of teaching aids for teaching young children to understand the human digestive tract and low-carbonate (low-carbon) diet. The teaching aids had the interchangeable appearance of a robot detective and an ambulance. They contained the four digestive tract games: the mouth, esophagus, stomach, small intestine, and large intestine. The dynamic game design that simulated the function of the digestive tract, combined with low-carbon diet board games, provided young children with learning in a playful context. The results showed that the teaching aids had advantages, including adaptive learning effects and fun games, enhancing learning motivation and interactive operation, and lightweight and environmentally friendly materials. More extensive teaching applications and follow-up research were recommended in the future.

The driving factors behind urban communities' carbon emissions in the selected urban villages of Jakarta, Indonesia.

As there is a high number of urban communities and residential activities like electricity uses, transportation, food consumption, garbage production, and knowledge on climate change and carbon emissions, these affect the resulting carbon emissions in the city. However, the studies learn about the association between household and human activities, socio-demographic characteristic, carbon emissions and climate change knowledge on urban communities carbon emissions at Jakarta are still rare. This study aimed to assess whether daily human behavior, demographic variables, climate change knowledge, and carbon emissions knowledge affecting carbon emissions of urban communities. A cross-sectional study design was performed via a structured questionnaire survey and a jejakkarbonku application towards 200 respondents who were living in the two selected urban villages of Jakarta, Indonesia (Jatinegara and East Cengkareng). The results revealed that the mean urban communities' carbon emissions in the region were 4.4 tonnes CO2 eq/th. Electricity consumption in the kitchen and dining room produced the most carbon emissions (38.6%), and waste disposal activity produced the least (0.68%). Urban carbon emissions affected by employment status and income level, but not according to food consumption, garbage production, climate change and carbon emission knowledge. Climate change and carbon emissions knowledge influenced by marital and employment status. Although not significant, in theory, these two types of knowledge contribute indirectly to carbon emissions. Further research on the low carbon diet, intervention studies to increase deep awareness on the carbon emissions and climate change is needed to develop strategies reducing carbon emissions at urban communities.

Effectiveness of current protein recommendations in adolescent athletes on a low-carbon diet.

Adolescent athletes require adequate energy and nutrient supply to support growth, development, and the demands associated with exercise and training. However, they are susceptible to nutritional inadequacies affecting their health and physical performance. Food choices with nutrient adequacy and environmental protection is crucial for a sustainable diet. Therefore, we aimed to assess the adequacy of low-carbon diets to meet the protein requirements of adolescent athletes. Therefore, a cross-sectional observational study was conducted with 91 adolescent athletes from sports clubs in Rio de Janeiro who underwent anthropometric and food consumption assessments. To estimate the environmental impact of anthropogenic activities, the sustainability indicators carbon footprint (CF) and water footprint (WF) were used. The CF of the athlete's diet was compared with the benchmark of 1,571 g CO2eq/cap/d estimated by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF). Protein recommendations according to the American Dietetic Association (ADA) for athletes and protein food groups according to the low-carbon EAT-Lancet reference diet were used as references. The results were stratified by sport modality, age, sex, and income range. The Mann-Whitney test was performed, followed by the Kruskal-Wallis test with Dunn's post-hoc test to assess the differences between groups using the statistical program GraphPad PRISM® version 8.0. CF and WF were directly associated with total energy intake, total protein intake, animal-origin protein intake, and the food groups of meat and eggs. Significant differences were observed in the environmental impact of diet based on sports groups and gender. The athletes' profile with higher environmental impact was male, middle-income class, and of any age group. The quartiles of CF of the overall diets were above the 1,571 g CO2eq/cap/d benchmark. Additionally, ADA's recommended range of daily protein consumption was met by most athletes, even in the lowest quartile of CF. Thus, a diet with a lower environmental impact can meet protein recommendations in adolescent athletes. The results found are of interest to the sports and food industries. It could help in designing a balanced diet for athletes as well as ensure less negative environmental impacts of food production and consumption.

Low-GHG culturally acceptable diets to reduce individual carbon footprint by 20%

For mitigating climate change and respect targets, humanity must decrease emissions as soon as possible: the later is the action, the harsher will be the trajectory of the mitigating pathway. Structural actions need time to become operational. Therefore, individual actions shall also enter into play, focusing on what has a high impact and whose change is at hand: food-related emissions build up 30% of total anthropogenic impacts and eating is an everyday activity. In this study, regional culturally acceptable low-carbon diets are proposed for China, Europe and US. They are developed considering the requirements of energy and nutrients supply, they respect regionality of food consumption – e.g., they include only foods that are diffused in the area – and they are aimed to limit the individual effort to be adopted – e.g., they include all the food categories, meat included. They are low-carbon since food items are selected on the basis of their lifecycle carbon footprint (CF). Eventually, the regionality constraints are relaxed to develop a World's low-carbon diet. For every area, we found a diet that halves the food-related CF. Instead, our World's low-carbon diet reduces the average food-related CF by 75%. Therefore, the overall individual CF would be reduced by a fifth in case of its adoption.

Low Carbon Diet: Integrating Gastronomy Service Emissions into the Carbon Management of the University of Graz

To avert the upcoming crisis of climate change, significant changes on different scales and sectors are necessary. The knowledge and research of the higher education sector is an essential part in the fight against climate change already. Many universities admit the urgency of acting within their institution as well and have started to measure their impact on the environment to formulate emission-reduction goals. As part of its sustainability strategy, the University of Graz launched the Institutional Carbon Management (ICM) project to calculate its emissions via a greenhouse gas emissions inventory. In comparison to other inventories, the ICM also includes the gastronomy services on and around the campus of the University of Graz, which is also the focus of this paper. It was found that especially energy- and carbon-intensive food products such as meat and dairy contribute to the emissions of a gastronomy service. In total, the gastronomy service emissions contribute 1.1% to the total emissions inventory of the university. Although the contribution is a rather small portion, the University of Graz sees itself responsible for all its emissions and therefore also aims to gain comprehensive insights into all sub-areas of its institution to formulate validated reduction pathways. The changes to a more sustainable gastronomy and low-emission diets can therefore be seen as part of a wider change towards more environmentally friendly behaviour in general with the overall aim to meet the Paris climate goal.

Effect of microecological preparation combined with an improved low-carbon diet on fat metabolism and intestinal barrier function in obese patients

Effect of microecological preparation combined with an improved low-carbon diet on fat metabolism and intestinal barrier function in obese patients

Microecological preparation combined with an modified low-carbon diet improves glucolipid metabolism and cardiovascular complication in obese patients

ObjectiveTo investigate the impact of microecological preparation combined with modified low-carbon diet on the glucolipid metabolism and cardiovascular complication in obese patients.MethodsFrom August 2017 to July 2020, 66 obese patients were recruited, and administrated with an modified low-carbon diet with (group A) or without (Group B) microecology preparation and a balanced diet in control group (group C) for 6 months. Meanwhile, 20 volunteers administrated with a balanced diet were recruited as the healthy control group (group D).ResultsAfter 6-month intervention, obese subjects in group A and B showed significant improvement of body and liver fat mass, reduction of serum lipid levels, intestinal barrier function markers, insulin resistance index (IRI), high blood pressure (HBP) and carotid intima thickness, as compared with subjects in group C. More importantly, subjects in group A had better improvement of vascular endothelial elasticity and intimal thickness than subjects in group B. However, these intervention had no effect on carotid atherosclerotic plaque.ConclusionAdministration of microecological preparation combined with modified low-carbon diet had better improvement of intestinal barrier function, glucose and lipid metabolism, and cardiovascular complications than low-carbon diet in obese patients, but the effect of a simple low-carb diet on carotid atherosclerotic plaque need to be further addressed.

Research on the Influence Factors of Low-carbon Diet Behavior Intention

Purpose - This study constructs an impact model of low-carbon diet behavior intention, explores the influencing factors and mechanism of low-carbon diet behavior intention, and puts forward policy and management suggestions accordingly. Design/Methodology/Approach - Based on t he t heory of planned behavior, t he i nfluence model of low-carbon diet behavior intention was constructed to explain the relationship between low-carbon diet knowledge, low-carbon diet attitude, subjective norms, perceived behavior control and low-carbon diet behavior intention. Findings - The empirical study shows that low-carbon diet knowledge positively predicts low-carbon diet attitude, and low-carbon diet attitude, subjective norm and perceived behavior control all positively predict low-carbon diet behavior intention. Among them, low-carbon diet attitude has the best explanatory effect on behavior intention, followed by perceived behavior control, and finally subjective norm. The theoretical model has a good explanatory power for low-carbon diet behavior intention. Research Implications - According to the research conclusion, to change the behavior intention, should focus on improving the individual’s low-carbon diet knowledge, establishing a positive low-carbon diet attitude, using the reference group to exert influence on individuals, and reducing the perceived difficulty of engaging in low-carbon diet as far as possible.

Exploring Consumers' Purchase Intention of An Innovation of the Agri-Food Industry: A Case of Artificial Meat.

Green consumption is an emerging environmental topic receiving global attention. Because livestock production is a primary source of greenhouse gas emission, the “low-carbon diet” has become a new trend in the catering industry. Fast food companies have been launching vegetarian products because artificial meat requires less water and land resources than traditional livestock and has lower carbon emissions. This study explores the influence of consumers’ attitude, subjective norms (SNs), and perceived behavioral control (PBC) on their purchase intention for vegetarian burgers from the product knowledge (PK) and environmental concern (EC) perspectives. Based on the theory of planned behavior, the purchase intention of people from different food cultures to pay for fast food burgers is discussed. Five hundred questionnaires were distributed, of which 436 were valid. The results revealed that: (1) consumers’ SNs, PBC, and EC significantly affect purchase intention (PI), and SNs and PK have no significant relationship with PI; and (2) vegetarians are willing to pay higher prices than nonvegetarians. This study recommends that industry personnel should attempt to increase consumers’ knowledge regarding artificial meat and expand marketing channels to improve the convenience of purchasing artificial meat foods by conducting lectures and media promotion, respectively.

Associations between active travel and diet: cross-sectional evidence on healthy, low-carbon behaviours from UK Biobank

ObjectivesTo examine whether there are associations between active travel and markers of a healthy, low-carbon (HLC) diet (increased consumption of fruit and vegetables (FV), reduced consumption of red and processed...

Research progress of gut flora in improving human wellness

Human wellness is the ultimate goal of our efforts in improving the human life. Special foods are undoubtedly important in achieving human wellness. However, overeating significantly leads to obesity and diabetes. These chronic diseases will in turn affect the human wellness. Therefore, “dietary restriction and proper exercise” were introduced in the human daily life. Different foods cause various effects on the human health. The diversification of diet is a priority for nutritionists to keep our body healthy. To avoid diabetes mellitus, special foods for ketogenic diet, low-carbon diet, and low-calorie intake are also gradually attracting attention. In addition, the hypothesis that “hunger sensation comes from gut flora” brings new light to the research on the biological motivation for humans to eat food. This hypothesis has been gradually demonstrated using the flexible fasting technology by providing special foods, such as plant polysaccharides and dietary fibers. The response to food-needing signals from the gut flora to these foods demonstrates the importance of the gut flora in improving human wellness. The gut flora is probably an essential factor for translating the food-eating signals and converting the nutrition to our body. Therefore, “gut flora priority principle” is developed to guarantee human wellness. The 16S rRNA sequencing and mass spectrometric techniques can be used to identify the gut flora, which may guide us to a new era of human wellness based on gut flora wellness.

Combining Low Price, Low Climate Impact and High Nutritional Value in One Shopping Basket through Diet Optimization by Linear Programming

Background: This study aims to find diets with low price and low climate impact, yet fulfilling all nutritional requirements. Methods: Optimization by linear programming. The program constrains 33 nutrients to fulfill Dutch dietary requirements. In a second cycle, the upper boundary for climate impact through greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE) is set to 1.6 kg carbon dioxide equivalents/day (CO2eq). In a third cycle, the costs are set on €2.50 as a constraint. The objective function of the optimization maximized the most consumed food products (n = 206) for male and female adults separately (age 31–50). Results: A diet of 63 popular and low priced basic products was found to deliver all required nutrients at an adequate level for both male and female adults. This plant-based, carbohydrate and fiber-rich diet consists mainly of wholegrain bread, potatoes, muesli, open-field vegetables and fruits. The climate impact of this diet is very low (1.59 kg CO2eq/day) compared to the average Dutch diet. By constraining costs, a low carbon diet of €2.59/day is possible. Conclusions: A two-person diet consisting of 63 products and costing €37 per week can simultaneously be healthy and yet have half the average climate impact. Linear programming is a promising tool to combine health and sustainability on both societal and individual levels.

Freight on a Low-Carbon Diet: Accessibility, Freightsheds, and Commodities.

The freight infrastructure network (e.g., roads, railways, waterways, etc.) is the backbone of nearly all trade partnerships in the United States and abroad. The manner in which the individual portions of its constituent parts are interrelated or arranged plays an important role for determining the environmental footprint of goods moved within the network. Herein, we compare the spatial distribution of potential consumer-producer exchanges (i.e., accessibility) under varying greenhouse gas (GHG) budgets or preferences for minimal transportation-related GHG emissions. We conduct case studies using two freight modes (truck and intermodal rail) for two representative commodities: meat/seafood and paper articles. Results across all counties in the United States indicate that the geographic area in which trade is possible, given a GHG budget, varies by transportation mode, location, and commodity. Our results suggest that intermodal terminal availability is an important determinant of low-GHG accessibility. Since only a fraction of road-to-rail terminals accommodate meat/seafood (4.9%) and paper (0.7%), the United States could increase its expected GHG savings associated with truck-to-rail mode-switching policies by 70% (+20 kg CO2,e/ton for meat/seafood) and 310% (+30 kg CO2,e/ton for paper) by upgrading current terminals to allow the exchange of all types of goods.

Have You Switched to a Low-Carbon Diet? The Ultimate Value of Low-Carbon Consumerism

Since the 1990s many governments around the world have been encouraging their people to participate in green or low carbon living. With the background of rising consumer awareness in environmental protection, green consumption, and green marketing are receiving growing attention from consumers and enterprises. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to identify the goals and values of 60 Taiwanese consumers in a low-carbon diet. This study uses the theory of Mean-end chain as basis, applying the “Soft-laddering” of “Laddering” to understand the perceived value of low carbon food in depth interviews. The results revealed that the attributes of users care for green living in the, order of, Less meat more vegetables, Seasonal food, Local food, Food with minimal artificial processing, Energy-saving preparation and Carbon footprint. After classifying by content analysis, we draw the Hierarchical value map (HVM) to explore that consumer’s pursuit of the final value and benefits by adopting a low-carbon diet relate to healthy living.

Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation – The Centrality Of Carbon Clusters And Creativity In Climate Change Adaptation And Mitigation: A Linguistic Perspective

The notion of carbon is quite central to climate change mitigation and adaptation programmes. Although carbon is one of the harmful gases that drive the climate change scourge, it is the lexical creativity around the word carbon that brings out some comic reliefs in a seemingly complex and confusing situation. The word carbon may be modeled around several clusters such as the Moral and Religious Cluster (carbon sinner, carbon guilty or carbon criminal), Dietary Cluster (low-carbon diet, carbon calories), the Financial Cluster (carbon trading, carbon finance or carbon markets) and the Political cluster (carbon neutrality, carbon battle, carbon war).Climate change documents, texts, pamphlets and briefings fall under the descriptive survey (qualitative methodology). Approaches such as Document Analysis, Critical Discourse Analysis and Text Analysis will be used to find the Communicative Functions of these carbon clusters. Interview techniques will be used to probe the policy makers and environmental officials on the contribution of these clusters in adaptation and mitigation programmes. The analytic approaches will be used in relation to ethnography of communication in order to evaluate the socioeconomic status, cultural and ethical implications of the society. The ideological orientations of the climate change carbon clusters will be analyzed in relation to the major emitting nations.

Low carbon diet: Reducing the complexities of climate change to human scale

AbstractFor many years, cognitive linguists, such as Gilles Fauconnier and Mark Turner, have studied meaning construction through language based on intricate mental mapping operations. Their research suggests that conceptual metaphor and conceptual blending permit human beings to reduce very complex issues to human scale. Climate change is such a complex issue. We ask: How is it linguistically reduced to human scale and, in the process, made amenable to thinking and acting? To address these questions, we have analysed the emergence of lexical compounds around a recent key word in debates about climate change in the English speaking world, namely ‘carbon’. One such compound and metaphor/blend is ‘low carbon diet’. In this article we study how the use of the compound ‘low carbon diet’ in an advertising campaign, a book, and by a catering company in the United States permitted US newspapers to reduce climate change to human scale. We have combined and compared metaphor and blending analysis with media and discourse analysis to shed light on the linguistic framing of a real-world problem, that is, we engaged in applied blending analysis.

Proportion of the U.S. Population Consuming a “Low Carbon” Diet

Results of studies on the environmental impacts of food production and transport have suggested that individuals can lower their “carbon footprints” by reducing consumption of animal‐based foods and increasing consumption of plant‐based foods. Specific recommendations for dietary changes to lower environmental impacts have included reduced use of beef, cheese, air‐freighted fish, tropical fruits, and highly processed sweets, snacks and chocolate. These recommendations provide a framework on which to evaluate the impact of adopting a “low carbon diet” on nutrient intakes and measures of diet quality. Using food consumption data reported in NHANES 2003–2006, 2‐day average mean intakes of beef, cheese, tropical fruits (mangos, papayas, bananas, pineapple and starfruit), and the highly processed foods were estimated for 6 age/sex subpopulations of the U.S. population age 9 y and older. Individuals consuming < 75% of the subpopulation mean intakes of beef, < 90% of the mean intakes of cheese and highly processed foods, and < 50% of the mean intakes of tropical fruits were categorized as consuming a diet consistent with “low carbon” goals. Overall, the diets of approximately 11–15% of individuals 9 y and older met the “low carbon” criteria. It will be important to determine the impact of this dietary pattern on nutrient adequacy and overall diet quality. Supported by the National Dairy Council.

Carbon Reduction Activism in the UK: Lexical Creativity and Lexical Framing in the Context of Climate Change

This article examines discourses associated with a new environmental movement, “Carbon Rationing Action Groups” (CRAGs). This case study is intended to contribute to a wider investigation of the emergence of a new type of language used to debate climate change mitigation. Advice on how to reduce one's “carbon footprint,” for example, is provided almost daily. Much of this advice is framed by the use of metaphors and “carbon compounds”—lexical combinations of at least two roots—such as “carbon finance” or “low carbon diet.” The study uses a combination of tools from frame analysis and lexical pragmatics within the general framework of ecolinguistics to compare and contrast language use on the CRAGs’ website with press coverage reporting on them. The analysis shows how the use of such lexical carbon compounds enables and facilitates different types of metaphorical frames such as dieting, finance and tax paying, war time rationing, and religious imperatives in the two corpora.

“Low-carbon diet” research looks at total energy usage of foods

“Low-carbon diet” research looks at total energy usage of foods