Planetary health diet in Malaysia: Recommendations for healthier people and planet

•The Malaysian diet is high in empty calories and lacks variety in nutritious food.•With a few strategic shifts, Malaysian diets can benefit people and the planet.•Planetary health diet may be useful as a benchmarking tool for food systems change. Food systems both influence and are influenced by environmental changes. Adopting a Planetary Health Diet (PHD) approach could alleviate the burden of food systems on the environment whilst increasing food security for the population. Here, we assess how the current Malaysian dietary guidelines and dietary intake compares to the PHD and investigate the relationship between the PHD, calorie intake, and food insecurity in Malaysia. We compared the percent of daily calorie intake by food group between the PHD, the Malaysian Dietary Guidelines 2020, and estimated dietary intake from publicly available data. Additionally, the Planetary Health Diet Index (PHDI) was used to compare alignment to the PHD across ethnicity, gender, and area of residence. Spearman's correlation tests assessed aggregated correlations between the PHD, daily calorie intake, and food insecurity. Compared to the PHD, the Malaysian diet lacked in legumes (3.6 % vs 23.0 % of daily calorie intake). There was an overconsumption of grains & tubers (53.1 % vs 34.0 %), added sugars (12.4 % vs 4.8 %), and meat (11.7 % vs 4.5 %). The ethnic Indian diet was most closely aligned to the PHD, with a PHDI score of 69.1 compared to the overall score of 46.2. The national dietary guidelines were well aligned to the PHD, however, a large proportion of recommended daily calorie intake was unaccounted for in the guidelines (43.4 %). Encouraging more whole grain and legumes and reducing meat and added sugar intake could help align Malaysian diets with the PHD, benefiting the health and wellbeing of people and their environment. [Display omitted]