Reducing our environmental footprint and improving our health: greenhouse gas emission and land use of usual diet and mortality in EPIC-NL: a prospective cohort study

Environmental Health

Research

Gerard FH Kramer¹  Marcelo Tyszler²  Sander Biesbroek³  WM Monique Verschuren³  Elisabeth HM Temme³  H Bas Bueno-de-Mesquita⁴  Yvonne T van der Schouw⁵  Petra HM Peeters⁶ 

[1] Blonk Consultants, Gravin Beatrixstraat 34, 2805, PJ, Gouda, The Netherlands;Blonk Consultants, Gravin Beatrixstraat 34, 2805, PJ, Gouda, The Netherlands;School of Business and Administration Sao Paolo, Av. Nove de Julho 2029, 01313-902, São Paulo, Brazil;Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 9, 3721, Bilthoven, MA, The Netherlands;Centre for Nutrition, Prevention and Health Services, The National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (RIVM), Antonie van Leeuwenhoek 9, 3721, Bilthoven, MA, The Netherlands;Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Heidelberglaan 100, 3508, GA, Utrecht, The Netherlands;School of Public Health, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, United Kingdom;Julius Centre, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Universiteitsweg 100, 3584, CG, Utrecht, The Netherlands;School of Public Health, Imperial College London, SW7 2AZ, London, United Kingdom;Julius Centre, University Medical Centre Utrecht, Universiteitsweg 100, 3584, CG, Utrecht, The Netherlands;

关键词: Sustainability;    Diet;    Greenhouse gas emission;    Land use;    Health;    Mortality;    EPIC-NL;    Prospective studies;    Environmental impact;    Substitution scenarios;   

DOI  :  10.1186/1476-069X-13-27

 received in 2013-12-18, accepted in 2014-04-02,  发布年份 2014

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundFood choices influence health status, but also have a great impact on the environment. The production of animal-derived foods has a high environmental burden, whereas the burden of refined carbohydrates, vegetables and fruit is low. The aim of this study was to investigate the associations of greenhouse gas emission (GHGE) and land use of usual diet with mortality risk, and to estimate the effect of a modelled meat substitution scenario on health and the environment.MethodsThe usual diet of 40011 subjects in the EPIC-NL cohort was assessed using a food frequency questionnaire. GHGE and land use of food products were based on life cycle analysis. Cox proportional hazard ratios (HR) were calculated to determine relative mortality risk. In the modelled meat-substitution scenario, one-third (35 gram) of the usual daily meat intake (105 gram) was substituted by other foods.ResultsDuring a follow-up of 15.9 years, 2563 deaths were registered. GHGE and land use of the usual diet were not associated with all-cause or with cause-specific mortality. Highest vs. lowest quartile of GHGE and land use adjusted hazard ratios for all-cause mortality were respectively 1.00 (95% CI: 0.86-1.17) and 1.05 (95% CI: 0.89-1.23). Modelled substitution of 35 g/d of meat with vegetables, fruit-nuts-seeds, pasta-rice-couscous, or fish significantly increased survival rates (6-19%), reduced GHGE (4-11%), and land use (10-12%).ConclusionsThere were no significant associations observed between dietary-derived GHGE and land use and mortality in this Dutch cohort. However, the scenario-study showed that substitution of meat with other major food groups was associated with a lower mortality risk and a reduced environmental burden. Especially when vegetables, fruit-nuts-seeds, fish, or pasta-rice-couscous replaced meat.

【 授权许可】

Unknown   
© Biesbroek et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. 2014. This article is published under license to BioMed Central Ltd. This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly credited. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.