Pulse Brain · Growing Health Evidence Index
Tier 3 — Observational / field trialPeer-reviewed

Environmental and human health trade-offs in potential Chinese dietary shifts

Yixin Guo, Pan He, Tim Searchinger, Youfan Chen, Marco Springmann, Mi Zhou, Xin Zhang, Lin Zhang, Denise L. Mauzerall

One Earth · 2022

Read source ↗ All evidence

Summary

This 2022 analysis examines the environmental and human health implications of potential dietary transitions in China. The work, published in One Earth, appears to model competing trade-offs between environmental sustainability (resource use, emissions) and dietary adequacy or disease prevention as Chinese food consumption patterns shift. The study contributes to understanding how food system change in a major population centre could simultaneously affect planetary boundaries and public health outcomes.

UK applicability

Whilst focused on China, the methodological approach to trade-off analysis between diet, environment, and health may inform UK dietary transition scenarios and food policy design. However, the agricultural production systems, dietary baselines, and health burden profiles differ substantially between China and the UK, limiting direct applicability of specific findings.

Key measures

As suggested by the title: environmental metrics (greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water use) and health metrics (disease burden, nutritional outcomes, mortality risk); dietary composition and food system impacts

Outcomes reported

The study examined potential environmental and human health impacts of shifts in Chinese dietary patterns, as suggested by modelling trade-offs between these domains. The analysis likely quantified greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water consumption, and health outcomes (disease burden or nutritional adequacy) across different dietary scenarios.

Theme
Nutrition & health
Subject
Food & agricultural policy
Study type
Research
Study design
Policy report
Source type
Peer-reviewed study
Status
Published
Geography
China
System type
Food supply chain
DOI
10.1016/j.oneear.2022.02.002
Catalogue ID
BFmommpma7-xai1mg

Topic tags

Pulse AI · ask about this record

Dig deeper with Pulse AI.

Pulse AI has read the whole catalogue. Ask about this record, its theme, or how the findings apply to UK farming and policy — every answer cites the underlying studies.