Healthy, sustainable and equitable: Integrating knowledge on food choice to optimise interventions

Changing diets could lead to substantial benefits both in terms of health and environmental impact, with the urgent need to change food consumption being increasingly recognised.

Drawing on evidence from interventions targeting unhealthy diets could accelerate progress towards more sustainable diets by quickly narrowing down the choice of interventions to improve food selections.

However, we need to ascertain whether key differences between healthier vs. more sustainable foods (including social norms, preferences and knowledge) impact on intervention effectiveness, and/or contribute to inequalities in responsiveness to these interventions.

This programme of work will examine differences in the impact of interventions targeting (a) healthier vs. less healthy foods and (b) more vs. less sustainable foods, and whether impact differs by socioeconomic position (SEP).

It will identify key moderators and mediators of the impact of interventions, and the extent to which these contribute to any differential impact by intervention target or SEP.

The programme comprises (1) a conceptual review; (2) experimental studies; (3) field studies in worksite cafeterias and in stores; (4) secondary analyses of purchasing data (e.g. from supermarkets).

Identifying the moderators and mediators of dietary interventions will help prioritise the most promising interventions for sustainable and equitable diets.