Nutrients, Vol. 18, Pages 1466: Environmental Impact of Diets Based on Established and Newly Proposed Dietary Guidelines: DASH, Mediterranean Diet and Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2025–2030-Style Diet
Nutrients doi: 10.3390/nu18091466
Authors:
Silvia García
Marina Ródenas-Munar
Cristina Bouzas
Josep A. Tur
Background: Dietary patterns face substantial environmental pressures, but few studies compare the ecological impact of those derived from widely implemented or recently proposed dietary guidelines. Updates to the American dietary pyramid have raised concerns about these environmental implications. Objectives: To compare greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), water use, land use, and energy use across three dietary patterns: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Mediterranean diet (MD), and Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) 2025–2030-style diet. Design: Comparative analysis of modeled seven-day diets based on each guideline. Methods: Representative diets were constructed following food-based recommendations for each pattern. Environmental indicators for all food items were obtained from the Agribalyse® 3.0.1 database. Daily GHGE, water use, land use, and energy use were calculated. Differences between patterns were assessed using one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni corrections, before and after adjustment for total dietary energy intake. Results: The DGA 2025–2030-style diet showed significantly higher GHGE and energy use compared with DASH and MD (p < 0.001), while no significant differences were observed between DASH and MD. No significant differences were found for water or land use across dietary patterns, which may be due to the heterogeneous contribution of individual food items to these indicators across dietary patterns. The DGA 2025–2030-style diet also had the highest total energy intake (p < 0.001). After adjustment for dietary energy intake, only GHGE differences remained significant (F = 6.187, p = 0.009), with the DGA 2025–2030-style diet showing the highest values and the MD the lowest. Conclusions: Dietary guidelines should integrate environmental sustainability criteria alongside nutritional recommendations. Reducing the environmental impact of diets may be achieved by promoting dietary patterns such as the MD and DASH diets, and by limiting high-impact foods characteristic of the DGA 2025–2030-style diet, particularly those contributing to higher GHGE. These strategies could support the transition toward diets that are both nutritionally adequate and environmentally sustainable.
Background: Dietary patterns face substantial environmental pressures, but few studies compare the ecological impact of those derived from widely implemented or recently proposed dietary guidelines. Updates to the American dietary pyramid have raised concerns about these environmental implications. Objectives: To compare greenhouse gas emissions (GHGE), water use, land use, and energy use across three dietary patterns: Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Mediterranean diet (MD), and Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA) 2025–2030-style diet. Design: Comparative analysis of modeled seven-day diets based on each guideline. Methods: Representative diets were constructed following food-based recommendations for each pattern. Environmental indicators for all food items were obtained from the Agribalyse® 3.0.1 database. Daily GHGE, water use, land use, and energy use were calculated. Differences between patterns were assessed using one-way ANOVA with Bonferroni corrections, before and after adjustment for total dietary energy intake. Results: The DGA 2025–2030-style diet showed significantly higher GHGE and energy use compared with DASH and MD (p < 0.001), while no significant differences were observed between DASH and MD. No significant differences were found for water or land use across dietary patterns, which may be due to the heterogeneous contribution of individual food items to these indicators across dietary patterns. The DGA 2025–2030-style diet also had the highest total energy intake (p < 0.001). After adjustment for dietary energy intake, only GHGE differences remained significant (F = 6.187, p = 0.009), with the DGA 2025–2030-style diet showing the highest values and the MD the lowest. Conclusions: Dietary guidelines should integrate environmental sustainability criteria alongside nutritional recommendations. Reducing the environmental impact of diets may be achieved by promoting dietary patterns such as the MD and DASH diets, and by limiting high-impact foods characteristic of the DGA 2025–2030-style diet, particularly those contributing to higher GHGE. These strategies could support the transition toward diets that are both nutritionally adequate and environmentally sustainable. Read More