Summary
This study analysed global and national adherence to the Planetary Health Diet using the PHDI and estimated potential mortality reduction from dietary shift using three large US cohorts (206,404 participants, 54,536 deaths). Mean global PHDI was 85 out of 140, indicating suboptimal adherence universally. The analysis suggests that improving global PHDI to 120 could prevent approximately 15 million deaths annually (27% of total deaths), with reductions ranging from 2.5 million cardiovascular deaths to 0.7 million neurodegenerative disease deaths.
UK applicability
The findings are relevant to UK policy and public health planning, particularly regarding sustainable dietary guidelines and health impact assessments. However, the mortality estimates are derived from US cohort data; UK-specific estimates would require calibration to UK epidemiological data, dietary patterns, and disease prevalence.
Key measures
Planetary Health Dietary Index (PHDI) scores by country; total and cause-specific preventable mortality; cardiovascular disease, cancer, type 2 diabetes, respiratory disease, and neurodegenerative disease mortality
Outcomes reported
The study quantified national and global adherence to the Planetary Health Diet using the Planetary Health Dietary Index (PHDI) and estimated mortality that could be prevented by shifting from current diets to the PHD reference diet using data from three large US cohorts.
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