SynthesisPloS one2016
The Impacts of Dietary Change on Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Land Use, Water Use, and Health: A Systematic Review.
Synthesis in PloS one, 2016. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 277 papers, 6 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
277 citing papers in PubMed, 6 syntheses or guidelines pooled it.
- Traditional place-based diets and their effects on healthy and sustainable food transitions: a systematic literature review.Public health nutrition · 2025Pooled it
- Environmental Impact of Current Diets and Alternative Dietary Scenarios Worldwide: A Systematic Review.Nutrition reviews · 2025Pooled it
- Aligning Environmental Sustainability, Health Outcomes, and Affordability in Diet Quality: A Systematic Review.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2023Pooled it
- Associations of daily diet-related greenhouse gas emissions with the incidence and mortality of chronic diseases: a systematic review and meta-analysis of epidemiological studies.Epidemiology and health · 2023Pooled it
- Sustainability Dimensions of the Mediterranean Diet: A Systematic Review of the Indicators Used and Its Results.Advances in nutrition (Bethesda, Md.) · 2022Pooled it
- Application of theories of the policy process in research on consumption of sustainable diets: a systematic review.BMC public health · 2022Pooled it
- Theory-based promotion of diet and transportation behavior change to reduce carbon footprint among students: Randomized parallel trial of the GROW app.Applied psychology. Health and well-being · 2026Trial
- Metabolic Dysfunction-Associated Steatotic Liver Disease Is Linked to Environmental Sustainability: The Role of the Mediterranean Diet.Nutrients · 2025Trial
- Sustainable diets reduce diet-related greenhouse gas emissions and improve diet quality: results from the MyPlanetDiet randomized controlled trial.The American journal of clinical nutrition · 2025Trial
- Environmental co-benefits of a Mediterranean-style dietary intervention for reducing depressive symptoms in adults: results from the Curbing Anxiety and Depression using Lifestyle Medicine randomised controlled trial.The British journal of nutrition · 2025Trial
- Effects of red meat taxes and warning labels on food groups selected in a randomized controlled trial.The international journal of behavioral nutrition and physical activity · 2024Trial
- Algae Ingestion Increases Resting and Exercised Myofibrillar Protein Synthesis Rates to a Similar Extent as Mycoprotein in Young Adults.The Journal of nutrition · 2023Trial
- Article
- Nutrient and Discretionary Food Intake in Vegan Adult Australians: A Cross-Sectional Study.Nutrition bulletin · 2026Article
- Eliminating Animal Products from the Diet Puts Dutch Older Adults at Risk of Micronutrient Deficiencies: A Simulation Study.Current developments in nutrition · 2026Article
- Plant-Based Diets, Ultra-Processed Foods, and Risks of Mortality and Major Chronic Diseases: A Prospective Cohort Study.The Lancet regional health. Europe · 2026Article
- How the sausage is made: Testing the effectiveness of an informative video in promoting sustainable food consumption.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Sustainability dimensions of diets with varying levels of food biodiversity in the NutriNet-Santé study.Public health nutrition · 2026Article
- Article
- The Rise of Plant-Based Proteins: Consumer Perception and Challenges.Food science & nutrition · 2026Review
217 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
5 authors.
Funding
Abstract
Food production is a major driver of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, water and land use, and dietary risk factors are contributors to non-communicable diseases. Shifts in dietary patterns can therefore potentially provide benefits for both the environment and health. However, there is uncertainty about the magnitude of these impacts, and the dietary changes necessary to achieve them. We systematically review the evidence on changes in GHG emissions, land use, and water use, from shifting current dietary intakes to environmentally sustainable dietary patterns. We find 14 common sustainable dietary patterns across reviewed studies, with reductions as high as 70-80% of GHG emissions and land use, and 50% of water use (with medians of about 20-30% for these indicators across all studies) possible by adopting sustainable dietary patterns. Reductions in environmental footprints were generally proportional to the magnitude of animal-based food restriction. Dietary shifts also yielded modest benefits in all-cause mortality risk. Our review reveals that environmental and health benefits are possible by shifting current Western diets to a variety of more sustainable dietary patterns.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.