The climate crisis is here: a primer and call to action for public health nutrition researchers and practitioners in high-income countries

Environmental-, Climate-, and Health-Related Dietary Motivations Are Associated With Higher Diet Quality in a National Sample of US Adults With Lower Incomes

BACKGROUND

Plant-based diets can have co-benefits for human and planetary health. Associations between environmental, climate, and health concerns and dietary intake in US adults are understudied, particularly in underserved populations.

OBJECTIVE

The study objectives were to assess how dietary choices motivated by the environment, climate, and health vary by sociodemographic characteristics and how they relate to diet quality and intake frequency of different food groups in US adults with lower incomes.

DESIGN

The study design was cross-sectional.

PARTICIPANTS/SETTING

A web-based survey was fielded in December 2022 to 1,798 US adults with lower incomes (<250% of federal poverty guidelines).

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES

Environmental-, climate-, and health-related dietary motivations and diet quality and dietary food group intake frequency were assessed.

STATISTICAL ANALYSES

Differences in mean dietary outcomes and dietary motivation ratings by sociodemographic characteristics were evaluated using analysis of variance and Kruskal-Wallis tests. Associations between dietary motivations and diet quality scores and dietary intake frequency were examined using generalized linear models adjusted for sociodemographic covariates.

RESULTS

Younger adults, women, nonbinary people, racial and ethnic minoritized groups, and adults experiencing food insecurity reported higher environmental and climate dietary motivations; older adults, higher-income adults, and food-secure adults reported higher health motivations. Agreeing with environmental- (β = 2.28, 95% CI 1.09 to 3.47), climate- (β = 2.15, 95% CI 0.90 to 3.40), and health-related (β = 5.27, 95% CI 3.98 to 6.56) dietary motivations was associated with higher diet quality scores compared with those with neutral rankings. Similarly, agreement with environmental-, climate-, and health-related dietary motivations was associated with higher intake frequency of fish, fruits and vegetables, and plant proteins, but not with red and processed meat intake frequency. Of several climate-mitigation behaviors presented, participants perceived meat reduction as least effective (P < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

Environment, climate, and health were positive motivators of several healthy dietary choices in US adults with lower incomes. Such motivators did not translate to lower intake frequency of red and processed meat.

Five U.S. Dietary Patterns and Their Relationship to Land Use, Water Use, and Greenhouse Gas Emissions: Implications for Future Food Security

The U.S. agri-food system is a driver of climate change and other impacts. In order to achieve environmental targets that limit global mean temperature rise ≤2 °C, a shift in American dietary patterns is critical. The purpose of this study was twofold: (1) to determine the environmental impact (i.e., land use, water use, and GHG emissions) related to consumption of five U.S. dietary patterns (i.e., Current U.S., the Healthy U.S., Mediterranean, Healthy Vegetarian, and Vegan), and (2) to determine the specific impact of each food group in each dietary pattern on the three environmental indicators. This study utilized existing datasets to synthesize information related to the study's environmental indicators and food production and connected these data to the current U.S. diet and the USDA-defined diets. Results indicate that the three omnivore diets contributed the greatest to GHG emissions, land use and water use. The Vegan diet scored the lowest across all indicators, although the water required for plant-based protein nearly offset other water gains. For the omnivore diets, red meat and dairy milk contributed the most to each environmental indicator. By considering sustainability as well as health outcomes in their recommendations in the Dietary Guidelines, the USDA can have a critical role in shifting diets necessary to alter climate change trends.