Pathways to healthy and sustainable diets: identifying facilitators, barriers and unintended consequences of switching to a more plant-based diet

Challenges

Generally, diets in Scotland are unhealthy and damaging to the environment. One solution is moving the population to more sustainable diets that are healthy and have a low environmental impact. For instance, a more plant-based diet, which comprise only small amounts of meat. Plant-based diets can have multiple health benefits when they include more whole foods such as fruit, vegetables, pulses, nuts, and whole grains. These diets typically have a lower environmental impact than meat-heavy diets.

Sustainable diets can have multiple co-benefits for health and the climate, which line with the Scottish Dietary Goals and Scottish Government emissions reduction targets to net zero by 2045. However, little is known about the type of food and meals people eat in place of meat and how it might change an overall diet. It can’t be assumed it will always be healthier. Hence, we need to be cautious about what we eat in place of meat. Plant-based convenience foods are increasingly available, but many are classified as highly processed which tend to be high in salt, sugar and fat, and if consumed regularly, could have negative consequences for health and the environment.

To support the right sort of dietary change, we need to understand barriers – both those people perceive and those they experience in the real world. While access and affordability are commonly cited barriers, social and cultural aspects of food choices are often overlooked, including the desire for convenience and familiarity. Understanding attitudes and personal, social, and situational factors driving or inhibiting the adoption of a more plant-based diet is critical for the development of policy interventions to change consumer behaviours and consumption patterns to create a healthier population and a more sustainable food system.

Questions

Solutions

The overarching aim of this project is to identify potential pathways to achieve healthy and sustainable diets and how to avoid unintended consequences in changing diets.

This project is extremely timely and critical as the need to improve diets is pressing. However, it is essential that shifts to more plant -based diets and reduction in meat do lead to improved health and environmental sustainability, since once established it could be challenging to reverse. The depth of evidence from this project supports the development of policy-related interventions and guidance for dietary recommendations for sustainable diets.

Perceived barriers and facilitators to eating a more plant-based diet

We are using multiple methods, including surveys and focus groups, to study the perceptions of the barriers people have towards changing diets and their lived experiences of switching to a more plant-based diet and eating less meat. We explore personal, social, and situational perspectives to generate ideas for facilitating change in diverse populations. We are also exploring the types of policy and intervention options that may be most effective in helping people eat more sustainable diets.

Experience of reducing meat consumption and real barriers to dietary

We are observing how perceived barriers to switching to a more plant-based diet play out in real life when people try to reduce their meat consumption in a free-living environment. We are conducting a mixed-methods trial where habitual meat eaters introduce three meat-free days a week into their diet and will observe through the lived experience, the challenges and facilitators they encountered. The findings will inform the development of interventions that can overcome practical barriers and facilitators while avoiding unintended consequences for health or the environment.

Contextual barriers and facilitators to healthy and sustainable diets

This project quantifies how the eating context (time, location, company) influences the decision to eat meat or meat-free meals. We explore what else might change in a meal if meat is reduced using the nationally collected dietary intakes data (National Diet and Nutrition Survey). The data covers a representative sample of the population in Scotland and will allow comparisons between socio-economic groups. The findings provide a more in-depth understanding of context and consequence of reducing meat consumption. 

Household purchasing habits of meat and plant-based foods and meals

We are identifying whether and what foods replace meat if meat purchases decrease in a household. Using data collected over time, we are building a picture of household-level changes in food purchasing behaviours. We also explore the potential external factors that may affect purchasing and will learn whether people changing one item in their food basket (meat or plant-based meat alternatives), trigger unexpected changes elsewhere.

Project Partners

Progress