Environment – Diet – Health Nexus

Environment – Diet – Health Nexus: an integrated interdisciplinary approach to sustainable food production and consumption

Diets link human and environmental health. Unhealthy diets cause most global disability-adjusted life-years of all risk factors. Today global food production and food supply chain accounts for almost one third of total greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs) and accounts for the largest share of use of land and water and eutrophying and acidifying emissions.

This interdisciplinary research project - involving nutritional and environmental epidemiologists, toxicologists, as well as experts in modelling environmental impact from the food chain - will build new integrated knowledge in the combined field of foods’ impact on human health and on environmental health and sustainability, simultaneously addressing societal challenges and global sustainability target. The project relies on dietary data from two population-based prospective cohorts, consisting of over 100 000 men and women from Sweden. A unique climate and environmental food database - based on more than 20 years of experience in life cycle assessment (LCA) of food products - will be used. The proposed project will contribute to vital knowledge to support future evidence-based health-promoting sustainable food consumption and production. It will be valuable for policy-makers, authorities, public food sector and food producers, and directly for consumers and for public health sector.

Contact

Financing

  • FORMAS 2016-2020
AP
Content reviewer:
Anna Persson
04-10-2023