Social Sustainability
Sustainable Healthy Diet
Definition
A sustainable healthy diet is an eating pattern that promotes health and wellbeing while keeping food production within planetary boundaries: predominantly plant-based, with vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes and nuts, moderate fish and dairy, and small amounts of red meat and added sugar. The EAT-Lancet Commission (2019) quantified the reference diet (roughly 2,500 kcal/day) showing it could feed ten billion people healthily by 2050 within environmental limits — food systems being responsible for around a third of global emissions and the largest driver of biodiversity loss.
References
This reference provides supporting context for how “Sustainable Healthy Diet” is defined and used.
Source imported for editorial provenance.
Overview
How it is used
The framework structures national dietary guideline revision (a growing number now include sustainability), food environment policy, and corporate menu and product strategy.
Why it matters
No plausible path exists to climate and biodiversity goals without changing what the rich world eats; the sustainable healthy diet defines the destination.