Sustainable, healthy, food-based dietary guidance must be developed, endorsed and supported through all governments' departments, from national to local. These new guidelines must be at the heart of policy development in each department, including in the sectors of food, farming, climate, fisheries and trade, with all policies assessed for their impact on equal access to a healthy and sustainable diet. Policies across the board should adhere to and promote the dietary patterns set out in the guidelines. These policies should make clear that individuals are not to blame for poor diets, and instead focus on the food system as the key driver.
The Eatwell Guide provides food-based guidance for eating a nutritious, balanced diet that meets official nutrient recommendations. The diet promoted on the guide offers a host of health and sustainability benefits at population level. There is a gap between current guidance and what we are actually eating, and as a result current guidelines are measurably more sustainable than current diets.
There is also room for improvement. The Eatwell Guide and associated advice should be updated to explicitly include sustainability as well as cultural relevance. Currently, it is primarily health focused and includes only subtle sustainability messaging. The British Dietetic Association's One Blue Dot toolkit provides a good example of how this may be presented, with clear, explicit guidance for no processed meat, reduced animal-based protein and moderate intake of dairy. Other examples include WWF’s Eating for Net Zero and the Planetary Health Diet.
Updated guidelines should:
- Include sustainability parameters alongside health.
- Model low environmental impact, healthy, culturally appropriate diets.
- Include clear meat and cheese reduction advice.
- Include clear messaging and advice on choosing a low impact diet for health and sustainability reasons.
