Background Research related to sustainable diets is is highly relevant to provide better understanding of the impact
of dietary intake on the health and the environment.
Aim To assess the association between the adherence to an energy-restricted Mediterranean diet and the amount of
CO2
emitted in an older adult population.
Design and population Using a cross-sectional design, the association between the adherence to an energyreduced
Mediterranean Diet (erMedDiet) score and dietary CO2
emissions in 6646 participants was assessed.
Methods Food intake and adherence to the erMedDiet was assessed using validated food frequency questionnaire
and 17-item Mediterranean questionnaire. Sociodemographic characteristics were documented. Environmental
impact was calculated through greenhouse gas emissions estimations, specifically CO2
emissions of each participant
diet per day, using a European database. Participants were distributed in quartiles according to their estimated CO2
emissions expressed in kg/day: Q1 (≤2.01 kg CO2),
Q2 (2.02-2.34 kg CO2),
Q3 (2.35-2.79 kg CO2)
and Q4 (≥2.80 kg CO2).
Results More men than women induced higher dietary levels of CO2
emissions. Participants reporting higher consumption
of vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole cereals, preferring white meat, and having less consumption of red meat were mostly emitting less kg of CO2
through diet. Participants with higher adherence to the Mediterranean
Diet showed lower odds for dietary CO2
emissions: Q2 (OR 0.87; 95%CI: 0.76-1.00), Q3 (OR 0.69; 95%CI: 0.69-0.79) and
Q4 (OR 0.48; 95%CI: 0.42-0.55) vs Q1 (reference).
Conclusions The Mediterranean diet can be environmentally protective since the higher the adherence to the Mediterranean
diet, the lower total dietary CO2
emissions. Mediterranean Diet index may be used as a pollution level index.official Spanish InstitutionsCIBER Fisiopatologia de la Obesidad y Nutricion (CIBEROBN)Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), through the Fondo de Investigacion para la Salud (FIS)European Commission PI13/00673
PI13/00492
PI13/00272
PI13/01123
PI13/00462
PI13/00233
PI13/02184
PI13/00728
PI19/01226
PI19/00781
PI19/01560
Especial Action Project
European Research Council (ERC)
European Commission 340918La Caixa Foundation 2013ACUP00194Junta de Andalucia PI0458/2013
PS0358/2016
PI0137/2018Center for Forestry Research & Experimentation (CIEF)European Commission PROMETEO/2017/017SEMERGEN grantICREA under the ICREA Academia programmeCanadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) MFE171207
PI16/00533
PI16/00381
PI16/00366
PI16/01522
PI16/01120
PI17/00764
PI17/01183
PI17/00855
PI17/01347
PI17/00525
PI17/01827
PI17/00532
PI17/00215
PI17/01441
PI17/00508
PI17/01732
PI17/00926
PI19/00957
PI19/00386
PI19/00309
PI19/01032
PI19/00576
PI19/00017
PI20/01532
PI20/00456
PI20/00339
PI20/00557
PI20/00886
PI20/01158
PI16/01873
PI16/01094
PI16/00501
PI13/01090
PI13/01056
PI14/01722
PI14/00636
PI14/00618
PI14/00696
PI14/01206
PI14/01919
PI14/00853
PI14/01374
PI14/00972
PI14/00728
PI14/01471
PI16/00473
PI16/00662
PI19/01332
PI20/01802
PI20/0013
