Healthier diets tend to be more sustainable as well. This holds true for flexitarian, vegetarian, Mediterranean, Scandinavian, and traditional Dutch eating patterns. "The amount of meat and calories are the key deciding factors," says Corné van Dooren, a researcher at VU University Amsterdam.
Van Dooren analyzed the environmental impact and nutritional quality of established dietary patterns. "These diets share common strengths: low salt, saturated fat, and added sugar per calorie, with high levels of fiber, essential fatty acids, and plant-based proteins," he explains. From this, he created the Sustainable Nutrient-Rich Foods (SNRF) index—a sophisticated mathematical model for better nutrition advice. Foods fall into four categories: red, white, brown, and green. "Green foods like vegetables, mushrooms, legumes, soy products, and fruits score highest on both sustainability and health," notes Van Dooren.
To gauge environmental impact, Van Dooren considered greenhouse gas emissions, land use, nutrients, cultural acceptability, and price. He also surveyed consumers, revealing opportunities for low-scoring groups such as young working men. "They could swap snacks for fruit, replace some meat with fish, choose vegetables over cheese at lunch, drink more water, and cut back on alcohol to reduce empty calories," he advises.
