The Mediterranean diet, an environmentally friendly option: evidence from the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) cohort

Abstract

Objective: How food is produced and consumed has consequences for ecosystems, such as resource use and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission among others. The Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) was proposed as a sustainable dietary model, due to its nutritional, environmental, economic and sociocultural dimensions. However, further evidence is needed. Thus, our objective was to evaluate the impact on resource (land, water and energy) use and GHG emission of better adherence to the MedDiet in a Mediterranean Spanish cohort.

Design: We analysed the dietary pattern of participants through a validated FFQ. The outcomes were land use, water and energy consumption and GHG emission according to MedDiet adherence. The specific environmental footprints of food item production and processing were obtained from different available life-cycle assessments.

Setting: Spanish university graduates.

Subjects: Participants (n 20 363) in the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) cohort.

Results: Better adherence to the MedDiet was associated with lower land use (-0·71 (95 % CI -0·76, -0·66) m2/d), water consumption (-58·88 (95 % CI -90·12, -27·64) litres/d), energy consumption (-0·86 (95 % CI -1·01, -0·70) MJ/d) and GHG emission (-0·73 (95 % CI -0·78, -0·69) kg CO2e/d). A statistically significant linear trend (P<0·05) was observed in all these analyses.

Conclusions: In this Mediterranean cohort, better adherence to the MedDiet was an eco-friendly option according to resource consumption and GHG emission.

Keywords: Energy use; Greenhouse gas emission; Land use; Mediterranean diet; SUN project; Water use.

Fig. 1

(colour online) Land use (a), water consumption (b), energy consumption (c), greenhouse gas (GHG) emission (d) and sustainability score (e) according to adherence to the Mediterranean diet (MedDiet) among 20363 participants in the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) cohort, 1999–2015. Red circles represent relative means with respect to the reference (ref.) and vertical bars represent their 95 % CI. MedDiet adherence calculated according to Trichopoulou et al.’s score^{( 29 )} and outcomes adjusted for total energy intake. (a) P trend<0·001; (b) P trend=0·009; (c) P trend<0·001; (d) P trend < 0·001; (e) P trend<0·001

Fig. 2

Percentage of contribution of food groups to land use (a), water consumption (b), energy consumption (c) and greenhouse gas emission (d) among 20363 participants in the Seguimiento Universidad de Navarra (SUN) cohort, 1999–2015