Small targeted dietary changes can yield substantial gains for human health and the environment.

Nat Food

Department of Environmental Health Sciences, School of Public Health, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, USA.

Published: August 2021


Article Synopsis

  • Researchers created a system combining health and environmental factors to assess various foods, using a new Health Nutritional Index.
  • The study evaluated 5,853 foods, measuring health impacts as minutes of healthy life gained or lost, revealing significant variations based on food types.
  • Substituting just 10% of daily beef and processed meat intake with plant-based foods could lead to health benefits of 48 minutes gained per day and reduce the dietary carbon footprint by 33%.

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Article Abstract

To identify environmentally sustainable foods that promote health, we combined nutritional health-based and 18 environmental indicators to evaluate, classify and prioritize individual foods. Specifically for nutrition, we developed the Health Nutritional Index to quantify marginal health effects in minutes of healthy life gained or lost of 5,853 foods in the US diet, ranging from 74 min lost to 80 min gained per serving. Environmental impacts showed large variations and were found to be correlated with global warming, except those related to water use. Our analysis also indicated that substituting only 10% of daily caloric intake from beef and processed meat for fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes and selected seafood could offer substantial health improvements of 48 min gained per person per day and a 33% reduction in dietary carbon footprint.

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Source
http://dx.doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00343-4DOI Listing

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