SHIFTING TO A RECOMMENDED DIETARY PATTERN COULD PROMOTE SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND HUMAN HEALTH

Highlights

● Shifting from the existing dietary patterns to the alternative recommended dietary pattern could enhance the sustainable development of environment and human health.

● Shifting to the Planet Healthy Pattern is more effective than the Chinese Dietary Pattern.

● Measures and efforts to induce balanced dietary behavior are necessary.

Abstract

With the rapid development of China’s economy, Chinese people tend to eat foods rich in fat, sugar and protein. This change in dietary pattern has brought double challenges to China’s sustainable development of environment and human health. So it has become urgent for the nation to shift to a healthy and sustainable dietary pattern. Based on the China Health and Nutrition Survey database, this study used K-means cluster analysis to classify China’s existing dietary patterns into quasi-southern, quasi-northern and quasi-western patterns. Two alternative recommended dietary patterns, Chinese dietary and planet health patterns, were selected to compare the effects of environment and health. The results show that a shift from the three existing dietary patterns to two alternative dietary patterns could enhance sustainable development of environment, especially for the quasi-western pattern shifting to the planet health pattern. Also, a shift would have of great benefits for human health, effectively reduce the relative risks of diseases such as hypertension, type 2 diabetes and coronary heart disease. The greatest benefits would come from shifting the quasi-western pattern benefits to one of the two alternative dietary patterns in terms of environment effects, and the quasi-southern pattern benefits most in terms of health effects. Shifting to the planet health pattern is more effective than the Chinese dietary pattern both in environment and human health. This paper provides policy recommendations to vigorously advocate dietary balance, scientifically promote dietary patterns, and change consumer dietary behavior.

Graphical abstract

Keywords

CHNS data / cluster analysis / dietary patterns / sustainable development

References

[1] Yin Y, Jia J, Shen Y. Changes and trends of food consumption of Urban and rural residents in China. World Agriculture, 2020, 9: 38−46 (in Chinese)

[2] China Agricultural University, Zhejiang University, Nanjing Agricultural University, Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences, International of Food Policy Research Institute. 2021 China and Global Food Policy Report. Beijing: Institute of Global Food Economy and Policy, China Agricultural University, 2021

[3] Liu J, Savenije H H G . Food consumption patterns and their effect on water requirement in China. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2008, 12(3): 887–898

[4] Qiang W, Zhang C, Liu A, Cheng S, Wang X, Li F. The evolution of virtual cultivated land resource flow in global agricultural trade and its influencing factors. Resource Science, 2020, 42(9): 1704−1714 (in Chinese)

[5] Lu J. Development of national nutrition Promotes to build a moderately prosperous society in all respects in China. Chinese Journal of Food Hygiene, 2020, 32(4): 351−355 (in Chinese)

[6] Sheng F, Wang J, Chen K Z, Fan S, Gao H . Changing Chinese diets to achieve a win-win solution for health and the environment. China & World Economy, 2021, 29(6): 34–52

[7] Eshel G, Martin P A . Diet, energy, and global warming. Earth Interactions, 2006, 10(9): 1–17

[8] Blas A, Garrido A, Willaarts B . Food consumption and waste in Spanish households: water implications within and beyond national borders. Ecological Indicators, 2018, 89: 290–300

[9] Alexander P, Brown C, Arneth A, Finnigan J, Rounsevell M D A . Human appropriation of land for food: the role of diet. Global Environmental Change, 2016, 41: 88–98

[10] Fung T T, Rexrode K M, Mantzoros C S, Manson J E, Willett W C, Hu F B . Mediterranean diet and incidence of and mortality from coronary heart disease and stroke in women. Circulation, 2009, 119(8): 1093–1100

[11] Tilman D, Clark M . Global diets link environmental sustainability and human health. Nature, 2014, 515(7528): 518–522

[12] Li H. A study on food consumption of urban residents in China based on nutrition goals. Beijing: China Agricultural Science and Technology Press, 2018

[13] Lin Y, Qi W, Zhu Q. Sustainable food consumption pattern in China based on ecological footprint. Journal of Natural Resources, 2019, 34(2): 120−129 (in Chinese)

[14] Dernini S, Berry E M . Mediterranean diet: from a healthy diet to a sustainable dietary pattern. Frontiers in Nutrition, 2015, 2: 15

[15] Kahleova H, Levin S, Barnard N D . Vegetarian dietary patterns and cardiovascular disease. Progress in Cardiovascular Diseases, 2018, 61(1): 54–61

[16] Zhang J, Wang Z, Du W, Huang F, Jiang H, Bai J, Zhang X, Zhang B, Wang H . Twenty-five-year trends in dietary patterns among chinese adults from 1991 to 2015. Nutrients, 2021, 13(4): 1327

[17] Tom M S, Fischbeck P S, Hendrickson C T . Energy use, blue water footprint, and greenhouse gas emissions for current food consumption patterns and dietary recommendations in the US. Environment Systems & Decisions, 2016, 36(1): 92–103

[18] Green R, Milner J, Dangour A D, Haines A, Chalabi Z, Markandya A, Spadaro J, Wilkinson P. The potential to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the UK through healthy and realistic dietary change. Climatic Change, 2015, 129(1−2): 253−265

[19] Sáez-Almendros S, Obrador B, Bach-Faig A, Serra-Majem L . Environmental footprints of Mediterranean versus Western dietary patterns: beyond the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. Environmental Health, 2013, 12(1): 118

[20] Wang S S, Zhang B, Wang Z, Jiang H, Wang L, Li W, Hao L, Wang H. Changing trends of food intake of adults aged 18–35 in 15 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities) in China from 1989 to 2015. Journal of Hygiene Research, 2021, 50(3): 442–447 (in Chinese)

[21] Li P, Yang H, Zang C. How does income affect salt intake?—Evidence from CHNS microdata. Economic Review (Kansas City, Mo.), 2017, 4: 90−105 (in Chinese)

[22] Tian Y, Min J, Liu P, Sun J. Clustering analysis on the dietary patterns of residents in Jiangsu Province. Journal of Hygiene Research, 2011, 40(6): 771–772, 775 (in Chinese)

[23] Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO). Global food losses and food waste: extent, causes and prevention. FAO, 2011

[24] Mekonnen M M, Hoekstra A Y . The green, blue and grey water footprint of crops and derived crop products. Hydrology and Earth System Sciences, 2011, 15(5): 1577–1600

[25] Mekonnen M M, Hoekstra A Y . A global assessment of the water footprint of farm animal products. Ecosystems, 2012, 15(3): 401–415

[26] Ali T, Huang J, Wang J, Xie W . Global footprints of water and land resources through China’s food trade. Global Food Security, 2017, 12: 139–145

[27] Shang Q, Yin K, Fan X, Mi W. Study on the sustainable development of ecological economy in Yinchuan City. Ecological Economics, 2021, 37(5): 86−91 (in Chinese)

[28] He P, Baiocchi G, Hubacek K, Feng K, Yu Y . The environmental impacts of rapidly changing diets and their nutritional quality in China. Nature Sustainability, 2018, 1(3): 122–127

[29] Schwingshackl L, Schwedhelm C, Hoffmann G, Knüppel S, Iqbal K, Andriolo V, Bechthold A, Schlesinger S, Boeing H . Food groups and risk of hypertension: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. Advances in Nutrition, 2017, 8(6): 793–803

[30] Schwingshackl L, Hoffmann G, Lampousi A M, Knüppel S, Iqbal K, Schwedhelm C, Bechthold A, Schlesinger S, Boeing H . Food groups and risk of type 2 diabetes mellitus: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. European Journal of Epidemiology, 2017, 32(5): 363–375

[31] Bechthold A, Boeing H, Schwedhelm C, Hoffmann G, Knüppel S, Iqbal K, De Henauw S, Michels N, Devleesschauwer B, Schlesinger S, Schwingshackl L . Food groups and risk of coronary heart disease, stroke and heart failure: a systematic review and dose-response meta-analysis of prospective studies. Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition, 2019, 59(7): 1071–1090

[32] Schwingshackl L, Schwedhelm C, Hoffmann G, Lampousi A M, Knüppel S, Iqbal K, Bechthold A, Schlesinger S, Boeing H . Food groups and risk of all-cause mortality: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective studies. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, 2017, 105(6): 1462–1473

[33] Tabata I, Ebine N, Kawashima Y, Ishikawa-Takata K, Tanaka S, Higuchi M, Yoshitake Y . Dietary reference intakes for Japanese 2010: energy. Journal of Nutritional Science and Vitaminology, 2012, 59(Suppl): S26–S35

[34] Li Q, Wu T, Liu R, Zhang M . Research progress for inhibition of dietary fiber in cereals and their modified products on choline metabolism of red meat. Journal of the Chinese Cereals and Oils Association, 2018, 33(5): 112–118

Supplementary materials

The online version of this article at https://doi.org/10.15302/J-FASE-2023489 contains supplementary materials.

Compliance with ethics guidelines

Maoran Zhu and Jian Zong declare that they have no conflicts of interest or financial conflicts to disclose. This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

RIGHTS & PERMISSIONS

The Author(s) 2023. Published by Higher Education Press. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0)