{"title":"A more plant-based diet can boost public health and reduce environmental impact in China","authors":"Xiaoyu Liu, Liangjie Xin","doi":"10.1007/s12571-024-01435-2","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"<p>The current diet structure of Chinese residents poses significant challenges to both health and the environment. Accordingly, in this study, a diet structure optimization model was developed to simulate the diet structure of urban and rural residents in four regions of China, taking into account nutritional needs and environmental sustainability for optimization. The results showed that by optimization based on nutrition alone, nutrient adequacy ratios could increase by 2.8% on average, narrowing regional disparities. Incorporating environmental sustainability slightly reduced nutritional improvements but significantly lowered carbon emissions, water usage, and ecological footprints by 2.9%, 6.9%, and 2.4%, respectively. By simulating the optimization of diet structure, the Qinghai-Tibet region showed potential for nutrient enhancement, whereas the southern and northern regions had opportunities for environmental impact mitigation. This study highlights the significance of transitioning towards a sustainable diet structure that enhances nutritional levels while prioritizing individual and environmental well-being and emphasizes the urgent need for change. It also offers targeted recommendations for diet structures in different regions of China, thereby providing invaluable references for policymakers and other countries striving to establish sustainable and balanced diets.</p>","PeriodicalId":567,"journal":{"name":"Food Security","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":5.6000,"publicationDate":"2024-02-21","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Food Security","FirstCategoryId":"97","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1007/s12571-024-01435-2","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"农林科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"FOOD SCIENCE & TECHNOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
The current diet structure of Chinese residents poses significant challenges to both health and the environment. Accordingly, in this study, a diet structure optimization model was developed to simulate the diet structure of urban and rural residents in four regions of China, taking into account nutritional needs and environmental sustainability for optimization. The results showed that by optimization based on nutrition alone, nutrient adequacy ratios could increase by 2.8% on average, narrowing regional disparities. Incorporating environmental sustainability slightly reduced nutritional improvements but significantly lowered carbon emissions, water usage, and ecological footprints by 2.9%, 6.9%, and 2.4%, respectively. By simulating the optimization of diet structure, the Qinghai-Tibet region showed potential for nutrient enhancement, whereas the southern and northern regions had opportunities for environmental impact mitigation. This study highlights the significance of transitioning towards a sustainable diet structure that enhances nutritional levels while prioritizing individual and environmental well-being and emphasizes the urgent need for change. It also offers targeted recommendations for diet structures in different regions of China, thereby providing invaluable references for policymakers and other countries striving to establish sustainable and balanced diets.
期刊介绍：
Food Security is a wide audience, interdisciplinary, international journal dedicated to the procurement, access (economic and physical), and quality of food, in all its dimensions. Scales range from the individual to communities, and to the world food system. We strive to publish high-quality scientific articles, where quality includes, but is not limited to, the quality and clarity of text, and the validity of methods and approaches.
Food Security is the initiative of a distinguished international group of scientists from different disciplines who hold a deep concern for the challenge of global food security, together with a vision of the power of shared knowledge as a means of meeting that challenge. To address the challenge of global food security, the journal seeks to address the constraints - physical, biological and socio-economic - which not only limit food production but also the ability of people to access a healthy diet.
From this perspective, the journal covers the following areas:
Global food needs: the mismatch between population and the ability to provide adequate nutrition
Global food potential and global food production
Natural constraints to satisfying global food needs:
§ Climate, climate variability, and climate change
§ Desertification and flooding
§ Natural disasters
§ Soils, soil quality and threats to soils, edaphic and other abiotic constraints to production
§ Biotic constraints to production, pathogens, pests, and weeds in their effects on sustainable production
The sociological contexts of food production, access, quality, and consumption.
Nutrition, food quality and food safety.
Socio-political factors that impinge on the ability to satisfy global food needs:
§ Land, agricultural and food policy
§ International relations and trade
§ Access to food
§ Financial policy
§ Wars and ethnic unrest
Research policies and priorities to ensure food security in its various dimensions.
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