Attaining a healthy and sustainable diet.

Abstract The world continues to struggle with the multiple burdens of malnutrition that affect billions of individuals and the countries in which they live. One major contributor to nutrition outcomes is the consumption of diverse, safe and high-quality diets. However, diets are not static - they are changing, and rapidly so, with income growth, migration and urbanization. Unhealthy diets (those high in salt, unhealthy fats, sugar, processed red meats, and highly processed packaged foods and sugar-sweetened beverages) are considered to be one of the major risk factors for the global burden of disease, of which more people are dying of diet-related non-communicable diseases everywhere including low- and middle-income countries. Food systems and food environments serve to provide the foods that make up the diets that people eat; however, both barriers and opportunities exist across those systems and environments to accessing healthy diets. Physical proximity, affordability, marketing and acceptability all play roles in the decision-making process of consumers when purchasing and consuming food. The foods that are consumed not only impact health, but also the environment. While food choices affect the environment, the environment also impacts food choices making the consumption of sustainable diets - those diets with low environmental impacts which contribute to food security and nutrition and to healthy life for present and future generations - all the more challenging. But there are solutions by way of individual, community and institutional levels that can move us towards healthy, sustainable diets for ourselves and for the planet.