Environmental Nutrition: Connecting Health and Nutrition with Environmentally Sustainable Diets

Environmental Nutrition: Connecting Health and Nutrition with Environmentally Sustainable Diets explores the connection between diet, environmental sustainability and human health. Current food systems are a major contributor to our most pressing health and environmental issues, including climate change, water scarcity, food insecurity and chronic diseases. This book not only seeks to increase our understanding of the interrelatedness of these major global issues, but also aids in the creation of new solutions. Sections discuss the diet, the health and environment trilemma, food systems and their trends, environmental nutrition as an all-encompassing discipline, and the environmental nutrition model.

Demonstrates how the food system, the environment and human health are inter-relatedExplores how dietary patterns impact food production and agriculture choicesIdentifies the imbalance between current food production relative to demandAddresses how the current food system negatively impacts the environmentProvides practical solutions to how diets can be both healthy and sustainable

Section 1: Introduction 1. The diet, health and environment trilemma 2. Food systems: description and trends 3. Environmental nutrition as an all-encompassing discipline 4. The Environmental Nutrition Model

Section 2: Global Challenges for Environmental Nutrition 5. Resource inefficiencies in the food system 6. Unsustainable societal demands on the food system 7. Food and dietary patterns 8. Environmental degradation – an undesirable output of the food system 9. Impacts of the food system on Earth’s environmental boundaries 10. The ethical imperative for Environmental Nutrition

Section 3: Tools and Approaches 11. Food Life Cycle Assessment 12. Methodological approaches for assessing diet, environmental sustainability and human health

Section 4: Defining Healthy and Sustainable Diets and Their Potential to Address Environmental Nutrition Challenges 13. Determinants of sustainable diets 14. Can diets be both healthy and sustainable? 15. Alternatives to meat: high protein plant products 16. Healthy and sustainable diets as climate change mitigation strategies 17. Food policy – where does environmental nutrition fit in? 18. Healthy and sustainable diets for a food secure future 19. Feeding healthy food to a growing population within Earth’s biogeophysical limits