Sustainable nutrition

Abstract

Sustainability refers to the ability to endure and persist into the future. It was initially introduced by the World Commission on Environment and Development through their 1987 report entitled “Our common future”. When defining sustainable nutrition, The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) places importance on respecting and safeguarding biodiversity and ecosystems, as well as ensuring adequate, reliable, and nutritious food. The global population is presently experiencing rapid growth, which poses a risk of depleting nutritional resources over time. One of the primary objectives of sustainable nutrition is to preserve existing resources for future generations. Achieving this requires careful utilization of global resources. In recent years, there has been a particular focus on researching and altering dietary choices and patterns within communities. The emphasis has been on the applicability of nutrition models that exhibit low ecological, carbon, and water footprints as sustainable nutrition models. Examples of such plant-based sustainable nutrition models include the Mediterranean diet, the Double Pyramid model, the New Nordic diet, vegan and vegetarian diets, the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) diet, and the planetary health diet. Additionally, it is crucial to discover alternative food sources that resemble animal protein sources, are accessible to all, and gain widespread acceptance. Currently, the most extensively studied alternative food sources include insects, algae, and cultured meat.