Advantages and limitations of the methodological approaches used to study dietary shifts towards improved nutrition and sustainability
1970/04/01 by Marlène Perignon, Marlène Pérignon, Nicole Darmon +1 · 46 citations
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Arts and Humanities · Computer Science · Engineering · Environmental Science · #Agriculture Sustainability and Environmental Impact #Artificial intelligence #Biology #Business #Categorization #Computer science #Discourse Analysis in Language Studies #Ecology #Economic growth #Economics #Engineering #Environmental Education and Sustainability #Environmental economics #Food Waste Reduction and Sustainability #Identification (biology) #Linguistic Studies and Language Acquisition #Malnutrition #Management science #Order (exchange) #Process management #Risk analysis (engineering) #Spanish Linguistics and Language Studies #Sustainability
paper · open access · doi:10.1093/nutrit/nuab091
published in Nutrition Reviews 80(3), 579-597 (Oxford University Press)
openalex publication_date 2021/10/21 · openalex created_date 2022/01/26 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/27
Abstract
Acting on diet is one of the changes required - in combination with actions on food production, transformation, and waste - to address the challenges of reducing the environmental impact of our food systems and eliminating all forms of malnutrition. The number of studies exploring how to move towards a more sustainable diet has exploded over the past decades, but there is a need to facilitate their understanding and use by policy makers and all other stakeholders possibly influencing diet sustainability. The aim of the present article is to propose a categorization of studies into 4 approaches, based on the type of methodology used to explore diet sustainability, and to highlight the principles, advantages, and limitations of each approach in order to help study users in their interpretation. The 4 approaches are: assessment of sustainability characteristics of hypothetical diets (approach 1) or existing diets (approach 2), identification of existing "positive deviants" (approach 3), and design of more sustainable diets with constrained optimization (approach 4). Specificities and key findings drawn from each approach are described, and challenges for future studies are discussed.
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