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Conference on 'Sustainable food consumption'
20-23 October 2015
12th European Nutrition Conference, FENS
Estrel Convention Centre, Berlin
What does 'Sustainable Nutrition' mean?
'Wholesome Nutrition' (German: Vollwert-Ernährung) is a concept of sustainable nutrition that was developed by Koerber et al. at the Institute of Nutritional Sciences at the University of Giessen in the 1980s(1). Wholesome nutrition is a mainly plant-based diet, where minimally processed foods are preferred. The central food groups are vegetables and fruits, whole-grain products, potatoes, legumes and dairy products. Native cold-drawn plant oils, nuts, oleaginous seeds and fruits are also important, but should be consumed in moderate quantities. If desired, small amounts of meat, fish and eggs can be consumed. This concept includes four equally important aspects: health, ecologic, economic and social aspects(1).
About a decade later, at the UN-Conference on Environment and Development in Rio 1992, 'Sustainable Development' was defined by the three 'classical' dimensions: environment, economy and society. Sustainable Development is the guiding concept of society: the needs of the present generations should be satisfied without threatening the needs of future generations. That means resources should only be used to the extent as they can be regenerated. Furthermore, there should be equal opportunities for every human being on earth, which means that industrial countries need to stop living at the expense of people in the Global South(2).
From the beginning in the 1980s, we included 'health' as the fourth dimension, because nutrition among others has far reaching effects on human health. In 2005, Leitzmann and Cannon established the New Nutrition Science Project, under the umbrella of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences and the World Health Policy Forum. This project picked up our concept of complementing the biological focus with environmental and social aspects(3,4).
Some years ago, we added 'culture' as the fifth dimension because the respective cultural background influences food habits (Fig. 1). Culture has been part of the sustainability dialogue for many years, especially in the context of Education for Sustainable Development(5).
Fig. 1.
(Colour online) Dimensions of a Sustainable Nutrition (adapted from Koerber et al.(1); Koerber(5)).