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After understanding sustainability in broad terms - balancing environment, economics, and nutrition, the next step is looking at the foods we eat. Not all foods are created equal: they differ in nutritional quality and in their environmental impact.

Nutrient Quality of Foods

Different foods provide different amounts of essential nutrients. For example:

• Leafy greens, legumes, and whole grains are nutrient-dense, providing vitamins, minerals, and fiber with relatively low caloric content.

• Animal products like dairy, eggs, and fish provide high-quality protein and micronutrients but differ in environmental costs.

• Ultra-processed foods may provide calories but are often low in essential nutrients.

Understanding nutrient quality helps us choose foods that maximize human health benefits per portion.

Environmental Impact of Foods System

Producing different foods has very different environmental footprints. Several factors influence the environmental load associated with food production, including where food is produced, how it is transported, and the processing involved.

Production of Food: Greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and land requirements can vary significantly depending on where and how food is produced. Climate, farming practices, and resource availability all play a role. For example: When the tomato is grown in an open field, the production emits an average of 80 kg CO2 per ton. If the tomatoes are grown in a greenhouse, they emit up to 700 kg CO2 per ton.

Transportation of Food: Transporting food from production areas to consumers also contributes to environmental impact. In fact, about 19% of total food system emissions come from transportation. For example: The transport of fruit and vegetables contributes 36% of transport-related emissions, which is around twice the amount of greenhouse gases released during their production.

Processing and Consumption of Food: Processing can increase environmental impact due to energy use, packaging, and food waste. For example, 130 kg food waste person happens in the European Union, about 47% of this food waste occurs during primary production, manufacturing, retail and food services.

The Key to Sustainable Diets

The intersection of nutrition and environment is where true sustainability lies:

• Choosing foods that deliver high nutrient quality to humans

• While minimizing environmental costs like greenhouse gas emissions, water use, and land use

This approach emphasizes more nutrient per environmental impact, rather than simply “plant-based” or “local” without context.

Practical Tips

1. Eat a variety of nutrient-dense foods: vegetables, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and moderate amounts of animal products.

2. Prioritize low-environmental-impact options: legumes, seasonal vegetables, and sustainably sourced foods.

3. Reduce ultra-processed foods: these often provide low nutrition relative to environmental cost.

4. Balance portion and frequency: even high-impact foods can fit into a sustainable diet if consumed thoughtfully.

Key Takeaway

Sustainability in food is about smart, informed choices: foods that support human nutrition and protect the planet. By considering both nutrient quality and environmental cost, we can make every meal a step toward a healthier and more sustainable future.

Disclaimer: This article and figure are for information only. The link between nutrition and the environment is complex and depends on many factors. Don't use this as professional advice or as the sole reason to change your eating habits. If you are curious to balance your nutrition with  your environmental goals, contact us or a professional near you.

We often hear about the “sustainable diet”: a way of eating that is good for our health and better for the planet. But can one diet really be sustainable for everyone, everywhere?

One might think, if we can find a diet that is healthy and sustainable, it would be the one solution to the global problem of diet related disorders and global environmental depletion. The answer is more complicated than it may seem.

Food systems are complex

The food on our plate is the result of a much larger system. It connects agriculture, climate, water, land, biodiversity, economics, culture, nutrition, health, trade, and livelihoods to begin with.

A change in one part of the system can have consequences elsewhere or even everywhere else.

For example, choosing a food because it has a low greenhouse gas footprint does not necessarily mean it is the best choice in every context. Its production might have require large amount of water contributing to water scarcity. It may be affordable in one country but inaccessible in another. It may provide an important nutrient in one population while contributing little to the nutritional needs of another.

This is why defining a food or diet as simply “sustainable” or “unsustainable” can be misleading.

Sustainable for whom, where, and for what?

Imagine two people eating the same meal.

For one person, while having a relatively low environmental footprint, the meal may provide sufficient energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals. At the same time, for another person, the same meal may not provide enough energy or essential nutrients to meet their needs.

The environmental conditions can also be different. A crop that can be produced efficiently with rainfall in one region may require substantial irrigation in another. A food that is locally available in one country may need to be transported long distances to reach consumers elsewhere resulting in vast difference in cost.

The same food can therefore have different environmental, nutritional, and economic implications depending on the context.

Nutrition needs are not the same for everyone

A sustainable diet must also be nutritionally appropriate for the people consuming it.

Nutritional requirements vary according to factors such as age, sex, life stage, activity level, and health status. The needs of a growing child are different from those of an adult. Pregnant and lactating women have different requirements. Populations experiencing undernutrition may need greater access to energy, protein, and micronutrient-rich foods.

This creates an important question:

Can we call a diet sustainable if it has a low environmental footprint but does not meet the nutritional needs of the people eating it?

Environmental sustainability cannot be considered independently from nutrition and health.

Context changes the answer

Consider a food that requires relatively little land and produces low greenhouse gas emissions.

That may seem like an obvious sustainable choice.

But what happens if:

• It requires large amounts of scarce water in the region where it is produced?

• It is unaffordable for low-income households?

• It replaces a locally available food that provides an essential nutrient?

• It is not culturally acceptable?

• It cannot be produced reliably under future climate conditions?

• It improves environmental outcomes but does not provide enough nutrients for a population with high levels of undernutrition?

Suddenly, the answer is less straightforward.

There is no one-size-fits-all sustainable diet

This does not mean that we cannot identify healthier and more environmentally favourable food choices. It means that sustainability needs to be evaluated within its context.

A sustainable diet needs to consider at least three interconnected questions:

Does it meet nutritional needs?
Does the diet provide adequate energy and essential nutrients for the population?

What is its environmental impact?
What resources are required to produce it, and what are its impacts on climate, land, water, biodiversity, and other environmental systems?

Is it feasible in its context?
Is it affordable, accessible, culturally appropriate, and realistic within the local food system?

These questions cannot always be answered independently.

From “What is sustainable?” to “What is sustainable here?”

This is perhaps the most important shift in thinking.

Instead of asking:

“What is the most sustainable diet?”

we should ask:

“What diet can meet the nutritional needs of this population while remaining environmentally and economically viable within this food system?”

That question recognises the complexity of food systems and allows solutions to be adapted to people, places, and circumstances.

One glove does not fit all

There is no single diet that can be optimised for every person and every place.

A diet that works well in one geographical, environmental, and nutritional context may not work equally well somewhere else.

Sustainable diets therefore require more than a list of “good” and “bad” foods. They require us to understand trade-offs, local conditions, nutritional needs, resource availability, and the wider food system.

One glove does not fit all. And one diet cannot be sustainable for everyone.

The challenge is not to find one perfect sustainable diet, but to design context-specific diets and food systems that deliver the greatest nutritional benefit within the environmental and economic boundaries of that system.

Disclaimer: This article and figure are for information only. The link between nutrition and the environment is complex and depends on many factors. Don't use this as professional advice or as the sole reason to change your eating habits. If you are curious to balance your nutrition with  your environmental goals, contact us or a professional near you.

When we talk about sustainable diets, we often focus on two things: health and the environment. Is this food healthy and provides the nutrients we need? And what is its impact on the planet?

But there is another question that is just as important: Can people actually afford it?

Healthy food needs to be affordable

A diet cannot be truly sustainable if it is healthy and environmentally friendly but out of reach for the people who need it. Eating well is not simply a matter of knowing which foods are nutritious. People also need to be able to buy and access those foods regularly.

Fresh vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, dairy, eggs, fish and other nutrient-rich foods can all contribute to a healthy diet. But their price and availability can vary considerably between countries, regions and even neighbourhoods. When healthier foods are too expensive, difficult to find, or not available, people may have little choice but to rely more heavily on unhealthier alternatives. Over time, this can affect diet quality and, consequently, health. On the other hand, price of an environmentally friendly of foods can also vary depending on where and how it was produced, processed and transport (carbon foot print for example). A healthy/nutritious food that is also environmentally friendly can be found in someone's kitchen garden while it can be unaffordable to some.

This is why affordability is an important part of nutrition.

Affordability and accessibility go together

Price is only one part of the picture. A food can be affordable but still difficult to access. Perhaps it is not produced locally, is only available seasonally, requires expensive transportation, or is not available in the markets where people shop.

In other words: Affordable food is not necessarily accessible food.

Accessibility depends on factors such as where food is produced, how it reaches consumers, how it is distributed, and whether it is available when and where people need it.

Could local food help?

Local food systems can play an important role in improving both affordability and accessibility (read more here). Foods that are well suited to local conditions can often be produced closer to where they are consumed. This can reduce dependence on long supply chains and help make nutritious foods more available. Local and seasonal foods can also be culturally familiar, which makes them more likely to be accepted and incorporated into everyday diets.

But “local” does not automatically mean “sustainable”. Local production still needs to consider resource use, environmental impact, nutritional value and economic viability. The goal is not simply to eat food produced nearby. It is to make better use of the foods, resources and production systems available in each context.

A sustainable diet must also sustain the food chain

There is another part of the story that is easy to overlook.

Food does not appear on our plates by itself. It moves through a chain involving farmers, processors, traders, distributors, retailers and consumers. For a food system to remain viable, the people and businesses within this chain need to be able to operate sustainably too.

If farmers cannot earn enough from producing nutritious foods, production may decline. If processors face high costs or excessive food losses, nutritious foods may become more expensive. If distribution systems are inefficient, food may not reach consumers at the right price or quality.

This means that affordable nutrition is not only about what consumers pay. It is also about whether the wider food system can produce and deliver nutritious food efficiently and sustainably.

Finding the balance

There is no single food or diet that will solve every nutrition and sustainability challenge.

A more useful approach is to look at the whole system:

• Is the food nutritious? Does it contribute to a healthy diet?

• Is it environmentally responsible? Can it be produced without placing unnecessary pressure on natural resources?

• Is it affordable and accessible? Can people realistically obtain and consume it?

• Can the food system sustain its production and supply? Can farmers, processors and distributors continue to produce and deliver it?

These questions are connected. Improving one part of the system can sometimes improve another part of the system however, it can also create challenges elsewhere. The task is to understand these connections and find solutions that work within the realities of the food system at work. The food system is big and interconnected, which means every single sector opens up an exciting new door for positive solutions.

Local solution - A solution towards delivering affordable nutrition

Affordable nutrition does not require importing the “ideal” diet from somewhere else. Sometimes, the answer can begin with looking more closely at what is already available. Local crops, traditional foods, existing production systems and underused food resources can provide opportunities to improve diets while supporting local economies and food supply chains. The challenge is to understand what is available, what people need, and how the food system can deliver it sustainably.

A sustainable diet is more than a healthy plate and a low environmental footprint. It should be nutritious, environmentally responsible, affordable and accessible all while supporting the food systems and people that make that diet possible. Because ultimately, sustainability is not just about producing food sustainably. It is about creating food systems that can nourish people today and continue to do so tomorrow, every day.

Disclaimer: This article and figure are for information only. The link between nutrition, environment, and affordability is complex and depends on many factors. Don't use this as professional advice or as the sole reason to change your eating habits. If you are curious to balance your nutrition with  your environmental goals at affordable price, contact us or a professional near you.