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Towards Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Environmental and Nutritional Perspectives—2nd Edition

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutritional Policies and Education for Health Promotion".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 25 September 2026 | Viewed by 1464

Special Issue Editors


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Guest Editor
Department of Food Science and Nutrition, School of Environment, University of the Aegean, Myrina, Greece
Interests: sustainable agrifood systems; sustainable diets; environmental management; biotic resources; spatial analysis
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Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Based on the success of the first volume of the Special Issue titled “Towards Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Environmental and Nutritional Perspectives” (https://www.mdpi.com/journal/nutrients/special_issues/GQ0D8F3MZ6), we hereby announce “Towards Healthy and Sustainable Diets: Environmental and Nutritional Perspectives—2nd Edition.”

Interest in sustainable and healthy diets has evolved significantly over the years due to scientific research and public awareness towards emerging challenges related to human health and wellbeing, combined with environmental sustainability on a planetary and local level.

Sustainable diets, by definition, are closely linked to human health since they promote the consumption of nutritionally adequate, safe, and healthy foods while minimizing environmental impacts. They promote nutritional patterns rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and healthy fats, with moderate or minimal amounts of meat, saturated oils, added sugars, and processed foods. Various well-known diets, such as the Mediterranean diet, the Nordic diet, Asian diets, vegetarian diets, vegan diets, and others, follow sustainable and healthy dietary patterns. Traditional diets, which originated from or are adapted to local sustainable agrifood systems, include healthy dietary choices based on indigenous knowledge and cultural heritage. Contemporary healthy plant-based food consumption combined with zero-waste and zero-plastic initiatives reduces the environmental impact of food production systems. Do these different aspects of sustainable diets impact complex health issues? Are global guidelines on sustainable diets and/or the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) adequate to transform regional and local behaviors around the world? Could sustainable dietary habits change food production, affecting our adaptation to environmental challenges ahead?

This Special Issue aims to enhance understanding of the interconnection between human nutrition and environmental sustainability, whilst following the guidelines of sustainable diets as they should or could be implemented across global, regional, and local scales. Topics of interest include, but are not limited to, those described above. Thus, all types of quantitative and qualitative studies are welcome.

Dr. Georgios K. Vasios
Dr. Constantinos Giaginis
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • sustainable diets
  • healthy dietary patterns
  • plant-based consumption
  • food security
  • sustainable food systems
  • local and traditional diets
  • Mediterranean diet
  • vegetarian diets
  • human health
  • human wellbeing

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Published Papers (1 paper)

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Review

16 pages, 552 KB  
Review
A Critical Narrative Review Appraisal of the 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines: Scientific Strengths, Conceptual Gaps, and Overlooked Dimensions of Sustainability and Health Equity
by Dimitrios Papandreou, Azza Alsuwaidi, Zainab Taha, Constantinos Giaginis, Georgios K. Vasios and Eleni P. Andreou
Nutrients 2026, 18(7), 1040; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18071040 - 25 Mar 2026
Viewed by 1303
Abstract
The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines introduce an important shift in public health nutrition, emphasizing minimally processed foods, higher protein intake, greater inclusion of full-fat dairy, and a food-based advice centered on “real food” consumption. While several of these recommendations align with accumulating evidence, particularly [...] Read more.
The 2025–2030 Dietary Guidelines introduce an important shift in public health nutrition, emphasizing minimally processed foods, higher protein intake, greater inclusion of full-fat dairy, and a food-based advice centered on “real food” consumption. While several of these recommendations align with accumulating evidence, particularly the discouragement of ultra-processed foods and added sugars, substantial concerns remain regarding their internal coherence, population-level applicability, risk of misinterpretation, as well as environmental footprint. This critical narrative review evaluates whether the scope, emphasis, and framing of the new guideline components are proportionate to the strength, consistency, and context of the underlying evidence. Using a novel framework that distinguishes between nutritional adequacy, optimization, and therapeutic application, we assess the scientific coherence of key recommendations. A structured literature search was conducted in PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science focusing on systematic reviews and meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials and large prospective cohort studies relevant to the updated guidelines. Particular attention is given to protein and saturated fat intakes, carbohydrate restriction in chronic disease, and the balance between simplification and scientific precision. Overall, the new guidelines represent a positive shift toward food-based recommendations; however, clearer differentiation between population-level guidance and context-specific interventions is required to preserve scientific rigor, reduce misinterpretation, and enhance public health relevance. Full article
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