Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA
Department of Health Promotion, Education, and Behavior, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC, USA.
BMJ Glob Health. 2023 May;8(5). doi: 10.1136/bmjgh-2022-010876.
What, how and why people eat has long been understood to be important for human health, but until recently, has not been recognised as an essential facet of climate change and its effects on planetary health. The global climate change and diet-related health crises occurring are connected to food systems, food environments and consumer food choices. Calls to transform food systems for human and planetary health highlight the importance of understanding individual food choice. Understanding what, how and why people eat the way they do is crucial to successful food systems transformations that achieve both human and planetary health goals. Little is known about how food choice relates to climate. To clarify potential paths for action, we propose that individual food choice relates to climate change through three key mechanisms. First, the sum of individual food choices influences the supply and demand of foods produced and sold in the marketplace. Second, individual food decisions affect type and quantity of food waste at the retail and household level. Third, individual food choices serve as a symbolic expression of concern for human and planetary health, which can individually and collectively stimulate social movements and behaviour change. To meet the dietary needs of the 2050 global population projection of 10 billion, food systems must transform. Understanding what, how and why people eat the way they do, as well as the mechanisms by which these choices affect climate change, is essential for designing actions conducive to the protection of both human and planetary health.
人们吃什么、怎么吃和为什么吃，长期以来一直被认为对人类健康很重要，但直到最近，人们才认识到这是气候变化及其对地球健康影响的一个重要方面。正在发生的全球气候变化和与饮食相关的健康危机与食品系统、食品环境和消费者的食物选择有关。呼吁转变食品系统以促进人类和地球健康，强调了理解个人食物选择的重要性。了解人们的饮食方式，包括他们吃什么、怎么吃和为什么吃，对于实现人类和地球健康目标的成功食品系统转型至关重要。人们对食物选择与气候之间的关系知之甚少。为了阐明潜在的行动途径，我们提出，个人食物选择通过三个关键机制与气候变化有关。首先，个人食物选择的总和会影响市场上生产和销售的食物的供应和需求。其次，个人的食物决策会影响零售和家庭层面的食物浪费的类型和数量。第三，个人的食物选择是对人类和地球健康的关注的一种象征性表达，它可以个人和集体地激发社会运动和行为改变。为了满足 2050 年全球 100 亿人口预测的饮食需求，食品系统必须转型。了解人们的饮食方式，包括他们吃什么、怎么吃和为什么吃，以及这些选择影响气候变化的机制，对于设计有利于保护人类和地球健康的行动至关重要。
