Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health

Diets link environmental and human health. Rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global dietary transition in which traditional diets are replaced by diets higher in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meats. By 2050 these dietary trends, if unchecked, would be a major contributor to an estimated 80 per cent increase in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from food production and to global land clearing. Moreover, these dietary shifts are greatly increasing the incidence of type II diabetes, coronary heart disease and other chronic non-communicable diseases that lower global life expectancies. Alternative diets that offer substantial health benefits could, if widely adopted, reduce global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions, reduce land clearing and resultant species extinctions, and help prevent such diet-related chronic non-communicable diseases. The implementation of dietary solutions to the tightly linked diet–environment–health trilemma is a global challenge, and opportunity, of great environmental and public health importance. As incomes grow, diets change, with varying impacts on human health and the environment; here the links are examined and suggestions made for diets that both improve health and minimize environmental impacts. Eating our way out of trouble? Across the world, human diets are changing as incomes grow, with potential impacts for the environment as well as public health. David Tilman and Michael Clark have quantified the effects of dietary 'westernization' and for many aspects of diet, they find a tight link between health and environmental consequences. Unchecked, current dietary trends would materially increase global greenhouse gas emissions and increase the incidence of type II diabetes, obesity and coronary heart disease by 2050. What can be done about it? Informed choices by individuals would help, but to little overall effect without major policy changes in the environmental and agricultural sectors.