Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Synergies and Trade-offs

About

5th International Master class to broaden disciplinary thinking in agriculture, food sciences, nutrition and health to arrive at an interdisciplinary research perspective on healthy and sustainable diets. It aims to contribute to synergy between scientific disciplines, applied research and stakeholders along the food supply chain.

The global burden of non-communicable diseases (e.g. obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, malignancies), infectious diseases (e.g. malaria, measles), and the ‘double burden of disease’ in both Western and low & middle income countries call for a diet shift towards increased nutrient density and lowered energy density. Moreover, because of climate concerns and the growing world population, this diet shift should go hand-in-hand with reducing environmental footprints of food production (e.g., greenhouse gas-emissions, land and water use) and also still be affordable. These public health and environmental concerns necessitate to change both dietary patterns as well as plant- & animal-based food production, processing, and distribution systems. These societal challenges are recognized by governments and supply chain actors at national and global levels. For research, this transition requires evaluation of synergies and potential trade-offs between nutritional health, environmental sustainability, affordability, acceptability, and social inclusiveness. In addition, cost-effective intervention strategies and policies, e.g. food reformulation and procurement; food prices, taxes and subsidies, food-based dietary guidelines, food labelling, and communication need to be developed and tested. This requires a food systems approach, that allows for interdisciplinary collaboration and involvement of societal actors at the micro-, meso-, and macro-level of the food system

Course leader

Prof. Kasper Hettinga, Wageningen University & Research, Food Quality and Design Group & Dr Sander Biesbroek, Wageningen University & Research, Division of Human Nutrition and Health

Target group

The course welcomes PhD candidates and post-docs, as well as professionals from industry and research centres. It will build on insights from environmental, biomedical and social sciences; nutrition, epidemiology, food science, agricultural, ecological and behavioural sciences, etc. Basic scientific knowledge on concepts and methods and study designs in qualitative and quantitative research is assumed

Course aim

The course uses a food systems approach to sustainably address societal challenges in food and nutrition security, under- and over-nutrition, global health and environmental protection. It aims to broaden disciplinary thinking in agriculture, food sciences, nutrition and health and to appreciate interdisciplinary research perspectives. Moreover, to arrive at a viable food system, it aims to contribute to synergy between scientific disciplines, applied research and stakeholders along the food supply chain.

After participation the participant:

- Appreciates the interdisciplinary concept of sustainability, the relevance and contributions of disciplines beyond his/her own expertise, and the role of stakeholders including consumers.
- Has a deepened understanding of the key scientific and societal issues relevant to advancing healthy and sustainable food systems (agricultural production, global burden of disease, environmental protection).
- Is inspired to contribute to a systems approach in his/her future career in scientific research and/or societal innovation; understands what this implies for conduct of research and data stewardship.
- Knows to use systems thinking to critically evaluate current research on sustainable and healthy diets and can suggest useful directions for research, food chain actors and policy makers.

Programme topics:
- Current knowledge base: Lectures to obtain an overview of food systems and population health; assessment and evaluation of environmental sustainability and health impact of current dietary patterns and dietary changes.
- Food systems: lectures to understand the principles and indicators of healthy diets, global health and environmental sustainability; basic and advanced optimization methods. Policy alternatives, spatial heterogeneity, foresight and scenarios.
- Practical work: gain a critical attitude by performing basic calculations of the impact of dietary changes on nutritional health and sustainability.
- Societal debate with public and private sector stakeholders in the food system: Balancing health with social, ecological, and economic sustainability.
- Research needs: filling research gaps, advancing methodology, enabling research infrastructures, data stewardship.

Optional one-day extension of the Masterclass:
Participants who want to acquire a deeper understanding of modelling diets, amongst others through linear programming, can sign-up for an extra day where they can perform supervised analysis of data made available by the course faculty staff

Fee info