The British Dietetic Association’s Journal of Human Nutrition and Dietetics (JHND) published a Special Issue on Sustainable Food Systems and Dietary Patterns in Nutrition and Dietetic Practice edited by: Liesel Carlsson, Angela Madden, and Kalliopi-Anna Poulia (Volume 36, Issue 6, Pages: 2121-2350, December 2023).
Twelve of the sixteen articles are open access and cover a wide range of practice settings.
- Open Access – Conceptualising sustainability in Canadian dietetic practice: A scoping review – Dietitians are well-positioned to promote sustainable food systems and diets. This research identifies practice activities described in the Canadian published literature and compares these with dietetic competency standards. Increasing practitioners’ ability to analyse issues using systems thinking will help address complex challenges. Updates to competency standards and curricular supports are needed to support this area of practice.
- Open Access – Meat versus meat alternatives: which is better for the environment and health? A nutritional and environmental analysis of animal-based products compared with their plant-based alternatives – Plant-based meat products were analysed to understand which are more healthy, environmentally friendly and affordable. Plant-based products were found to contain less saturated fat, protein and calories; more fibre and sugar; and similar salt content. They were more expensive but had less emissions. Plant-based and meat products were classed as ultra-processed.
- Environmental imprints of agricultural and livestock produce: A scoping review from South Asian countries – Diversification in food production and cultivating additional coarse cereals (millets) offer opportunities for green house gas (GHG) reduction in South Asian countries.
- Dietary patterns in North and South India: a comparison with EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations – Very few studies have compared Indian diets with the EAT-Lancet dietary recommendations. The present study performed such a comparison using primary dietary consumption data, finding that Indian diets were mainly plant-based, being high in dairy but lacking in nutrient-rich foods such as vegetables and fruits.
- Determinants of dietary diversity and drivers of food choice among low-income consumers in urban Kenya, Malawi and Zimbabwe – From the Nairobi responses, convenience (40% of respondents) was the main factor influencing food choice, whereas price was the most important factor in Bulawayo (31% of respondents) and Lilongwe (67% of respondents). Price and convenience are important factors to consider for improving diet diversity in urban low-income settlements.
- Open Access – The association between food environment, diet quality and malnutrition in low- and middle-income adult populations across the rural—Urban gradient in Vietnam – Geospatial mapping of food outlets and the Diet Quality Index were used. Longer distances to food outlets were associated with higher diet quality, whereas lower outlet density increased the odds of underweight among women. Socio-economic factors consistently correlated with diet quality and malnutrition.
- Open Access – Local food procurement by hospitals: a scoping review – There is a paucity of peer-reviewed studies describing local food procurement by hospitals. Details of local food procurement models were generally lacking: categorisable as either purchases made ‘on-contract’ via conventional means or ‘off-contract’. If hospital foodservices are to increase their local food procurement, they require access to a suitable, reliable and traceable supply, that acknowledges their complexity and budgetary constraints.
- Open Access – Benefits, limitations and implementation issues for integrating organic foods into hospital foodservices: a systematic review – This review identified opportunities for the implementation of organic foods into hospital foodservices, but there are numerous barriers to be overcome through strategies including organisational support and staff training.
- Open Access – What is the climate footprint of therapeutic diets for people with chronic kidney disease? Results from an Australian analysis – The climate footprint of the current Australian diet, the usual renal diet, a plant-based renal diet and the Australian-adapted Planetary Health Diet were analysed. No diets were climate neutral. A plant-based renal diet was superior to usual care. Animal and discretionary foods increase the climate footprint.
- Open Access – Moving towards more sustainable diets: Is there potential for a personalised approach in practice? Personalised nutrition feedback can be used to encourage change to more sustainable diets. Personalisation uses individual factors (e.g., sex, age, dietary intake, etc.) and relevant criteria (e.g., environmental impact, nutritional adequacy, healthfulness, diet acceptability) to provide an individual with actionable feedback recommendations for dietary change.
- Open Access – Commercial weight-loss diets, greenhouse gas emissions and freshwater consumption – Commercial weight-loss diets had GHGe footprints on average 4.4 times the EAT-Lancet target recommended for planetary health. Bovine meat was by far the largest contributor of GHGe in most diets that included it. Three commercial diets had water footprints above the US baseline.
- Sustainable diets among youth: Validity and reliability of a questionnaire assessing knowledge, attitudes, practices, and willingness to change – The study describes the validity and reliability of a questionnaire examining the perception of sustainable diets among youth in the United Arab Emirates. This tool is essential for the development of evidence-based interventions aiming to promote sustainable food consumption among young adults.
- Open Access – Fix my food: An urgent call to action from adolescents on how they experience and want to see change in their food systems – Global food systems are failing adolescents. Workshops were conducted with 640 adolescents aged 10–19 years across 18 countries. Three key themes emerged, which included experiences of food, challenges to food systems and strengthening food systems. Adolescents called for inclusion in decision-making from local food practice to large global policy development.
- Open Access – Nutrition quality and food and packaging waste associated with the school food system: A pilot, citizen science study in an Irish secondary school – This pilot study included adolescents as citizen scientists for a hands-on audit of waste and nutrition quality within their school food system. They were surprised and saddened to discover waste volume and contamination that prevented recycling or repurposing. Solutions proposed considered individual, community and organisational level factors.
- Open Access – Collaborative leadership to support sustainability in practice for dietitians as allied health professionals – There is an urgent need for allied health professionals (AHP) to embrace the National Health Service Net Zero (Green) agenda. As advocates for environmentally sustainable diets and food systems, dietitians are well positioned to step into collaborative leadership roles as advocates for transformational change towards greener healthcare practices.
- Open Access – The role of Australian civil society organisations in food system governance: Opportunities for collaboration in dietetics practice – A survey of 43 Australian civil society organisations (CSOs) identified their engagement with food system governance, including influencing policy outcomes, contributing to more inclusive and democratic forms of governance and leading community-based food system policies. Dietitians can engage with CSOs in education, research and advocacy roles for food system transformation.
Transparency | Diversity | Dynamism | Evidence-based |