Sustainable diets and risk of overweight and obesity: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

SummarySustainable diets are gaining interest as a possible approach to tackle climate change and the global extent of obesity. Yet, the association between sustainable diets and adiposity remains unclear. We performed a systematic review and meta‐analysis, calculating summary relative risks and 95% confidence intervals (CI). We pooled maximally adjusted risk estimates, assessed heterogeneity and publication bias, calculated the E‐value, and evaluated the risk of bias across the included studies. A total of eight studies were eligible for analysis. Comparing the highest versus the lowest levels of adherence to sustainable diets, the pooled effect estimate was 0.69 (95% CI = 0.62–0.76) for overweight and 0.61 (95% CI = 0.47–0.78) for obesity. These results suggest that sustainable diets may decrease the risk of overweight/obesity and therefore could serve as enablers for improving both public and planetary health. An agreed‐upon clear definition of sustainable diets would enhance the comparability of future studies in this area.