Unequal nutritional quality and environmental impacts of self-selected diets in the US

Keywords: US diets, socio-economic status, GHG, blue water footprint, land use, energy consumption, nutritional quality, affordability
Session Type: Virtual Paper Abstract
Day: Friday
Session Start / End Time: 2/25/2022 05:20 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada)) - 2/25/2022 06:40 PM (Eastern Time (US & Canada))
Room: Virtual 74

Abstract

Dietary patterns rich in meat, saturated fat, and added sugar in developed countries such as the United States are not only imposing a considerable public health burden but also contributing significantly to multiple environmental issues. While environmental implications of food choices have been the focus of increasingly extensive research, less is known on the environmental impacts of different dietary patterns associated with different consumer groups and the trade-offs between improving nutritional quality and environmental impacts of food consumption. Here we evaluate the impacts of U.S. household dietary patterns on greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, blue water footprint, land use, and energy consumption across supply chains using an environmentally extended input-output analysis, and compare nutritional quality of these dietary patterns using the Healthy Eating Index scores across individual’s income and other socio-economic characteristics based on an individual-level National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey from 2005 to 2016.