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Nutrients
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The Impact of the Food Environment on Diet and Health
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The Impact of the Food Environment on Diet and Health

A special issue of Nutrients (ISSN 2072-6643). This special issue belongs to the section "Nutrition and Public Health".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 20 October 2026 | Viewed by 2567

Special Issue Editors

Dr. Carla Gonçalves

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Centre for the Research and Technology of Agro-Environmental and Biological Sciences, University of Trás-os-Montes and Alto Douro, Vila Real, Portugal
Interests: salt intake; public health
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Prof. Dr. Pedro Moreira

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Faculty of Nutrition and Food Sciences, EPIUnit, Institute of Public Health, The Research Centre in Physical Activity, Health and Leisure, University of Porto, Porto, Portugal
Interests: sodium; salt; obesity; asthma; hydration
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

We are pleased to announce a Special Issue of Nutrients focused on “The Impact of the Food Environment on Diet and Health”. This Special Issue invites contributions that examine food environments across a wide range of global contexts, including urban and rural settings in high-, middle-, and low-income countries, and their influence on food choice, dietary behaviors, dietary intake, and health.

We are particularly interested in studies that consider physical, economic, sociocultural, and other conditions that can affect food choices, including food availability and accessibility. In addition, we welcome research that explores the role of digital food environments, the workplace, and community-level settings, aimed at improving dietary behaviors and public health.

Submissions that draw on theoretical models, propose or evaluate innovative interventions, explore differences in dietary behaviors according to food environments, or explore methodological tools to understand how the food environment shapes diet and health are welcome.

Some of the topics we hope to feature include the following:

  • Food deserts, food swamps, and food oases in determining diet and health;
  • Built food environments, including formal and informal retail, and natural food environments, such as wild and cultivated food environments;
  • Research methodologies and measures to examine the food environment;
  • Exploring the role in which physical contexts and social, cultural, and sustainability factors influence food choice;
  • How the salience, structure, and variety of food assortments can affect food choice, dietary intake, and health;
  • Evaluation of community-based or household-level programs promoting healthier food environments;
  • Modeling the public health impacts of environment interventions in food systems;
  • Inequities in food environments and their contribution to health disparities;
  • The effects of urbanization and globalization on local food availability and diet;
  • Case studies of food environment interventions in schools, workplaces, or other institutions;
  • Examining the impact of terroir — including soil, climate, agricultural practices, and local know-how — on the sensory identity, accessibility, and valuation of foods, as well as its implications for dietary behavior/diet quality;
  • Exploring barriers and facilitators to improve dietary behaviors in challenging food environments, including food and nutritional literacy level;
  • Exploring the characterization and modulation of obesogenic and salinogenic environments to enhance dietary intake and health among populations and communities.

We look forward to your submissions and to building a strong collection of studies that helps to deepen our understanding of how transforming food environments can lead to healthier lives.

Dr. Carla Gonçalves
Prof. Dr. Pedro Moreira
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

  • diet quality
  • food environment
  • community food environment
  • food heritage/culture
  • food choice
  • food access
  • food system
  • food deserts
  • food swamps
  • food oases
  • food and nutritional literacy monitoring
  • health outcomes public health
  • research methodologies and measures
  • food provision
  • food retail
  • organizational food environment
  • occupational health
  • vending machines
  • workplace
  • digital food environment

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

21 pages, 980 KB  
Article
Dietary Diversity, Dietary Patterns, and Cardiometabolic Health in University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study
by Diana Fonseca-Pérez, Ludwig Álvarez-Córdova, Cecilia Arteaga-Pazmiño, Víctor Sierra-Nieto, Jaen Cagua-Ordoñez, Evelyn Frias-Toral, Giovanna Muscogiuri, Claudia Reytor-González and Daniel Simancas-Racines
Nutrients 2026, 18(3), 511; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18030511 - 2 Feb 2026
Cited by 1 | Viewed by 1143
Abstract
Background: Cardiometabolic risk is increasingly observed in young adults, particularly during university years, and is not limited to individuals with elevated body mass index. Emerging evidence highlights the presence of normal weight obesity—characterized by excess adiposity and unfavorable body composition despite normal BMI—which [...] Read more.
Background: Cardiometabolic risk is increasingly observed in young adults, particularly during university years, and is not limited to individuals with elevated body mass index. Emerging evidence highlights the presence of normal weight obesity—characterized by excess adiposity and unfavorable body composition despite normal BMI—which may confer early metabolic vulnerability. Dietary diversity is often promoted as a marker of dietary adequacy; however, its relationship with adiposity, body composition, and muscular health remains inconsistent, particularly in Latin American populations. Moreover, few studies have directly contrasted dietary diversity indicators with empirically derived dietary patterns in relation to cardiometabolic and functional outcomes. Objective: To examine the associations between dietary diversity, dietary patterns, and indicators of adiposity, muscular strength, and relative muscle mass in Ecuadorian university students. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 349 undergraduate students aged 18–26 years enrolled in health sciences programs in Ecuador. Dietary intake was assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Dietary diversity was quantified using the Food and Agriculture Organization’s Individual Dietary Diversity Score, while dietary patterns were identified through principal component analysis followed by k-means clustering. Outcomes included excess body weight, relative muscle mass assessed by bioelectrical impedance analysis, and handgrip strength. Multivariable Poisson and linear regression models were fitted, adjusting for age, sex, academic program, physical activity level, and pre-existing conditions. Results: Despite their young age and low prevalence of diagnosed disease, approximately one-third of the participants exhibited markers of early cardiometabolic risk, including excess body weight and central adiposity. Higher dietary diversity was independently associated with a higher prevalence of excess body weight (adjusted prevalence ratio per one-unit increase in IDDS: 1.17; 95% CI: 1.06–1.30) and with greater relative muscle mass (adjusted β = 0.13; 95% CI: 0.05–0.22), whereas no association was observed with handgrip strength. In contrast, dietary patterns derived from multivariate analysis showed no significant associations with adiposity, muscular strength, or relative muscle mass after adjustment. Conclusions: In this young adult population, dietary diversity captured aspects of overall dietary exposure associated with both increased adiposity and greater lean mass, but not with muscular strength. Empirically derived dietary patterns demonstrated limited discriminatory capacity, likely reflecting dietary homogeneity within the cohort. These findings indicate that dietary diversity alone does not necessarily reflect diet quality and underscore the importance of interpreting diversity metrics alongside indicators of food quality, energy density, and body composition when evaluating early cardiometabolic risk in contemporary food environments. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of the Food Environment on Diet and Health)
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13 pages, 436 KB  
Article
Do Cooking Classes for Nutrition Students Improve Their Eating Competence and Cooking Skills? A 1-Year Follow-Up in a Sample of Brazilian Public University Students
by Julyana Nogueira Firme, Renata Puppin Zandonadi, Millena Amaral Santana, Rafaella Dusi, Eduardo Yoshio Nakano, Fabiana Lopes Nalon de Queiroz, Luanna Ortiz Costa Ribeiro, António Raposo, Zayed D. Alsharari and Raquel B. A. Botelho
Nutrients 2026, 18(2), 259; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu18020259 - 14 Jan 2026
Viewed by 908
Abstract
Background: The decline in traditional cooking practices and the increased consumption of ready-to-eat meals have raised concerns about dietary quality and health, especially among university students. Nutrition students, despite their academic training, often struggle to translate theoretical knowledge into healthy eating practices. Culinary [...] Read more.
Background: The decline in traditional cooking practices and the increased consumption of ready-to-eat meals have raised concerns about dietary quality and health, especially among university students. Nutrition students, despite their academic training, often struggle to translate theoretical knowledge into healthy eating practices. Culinary classes in academic settings have emerged as promising strategies to enhance both cooking skills (CS) and eating competence (EC). Objectives: This study aimed to evaluate the impact of a 12-month cooking class program on the development of culinary skills and eating competence among nutrition students at a public university in Brazil. Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted with 42 nutrition students who completed a structured questionnaire at three time points: baseline, after 6 months, and after 1 year of participation in sequential cooking-related subjects. Data were collected using the Brazilian Cooking Skills and Healthy Eating Questionnaire (QBHC) and the Brazilian version of the Satter Eating Competence Inventory (ecSI2.0™BR). Statistical analyses included a repeated-measures ANOVA and a Pearson correlation. Bonferroni post hoc comparisons were conducted following the repeated-measures ANOVA to identify the time points at which significant differences occurred. Results: Participants, predominantly young females (78.6%, mean age 21.07 ± 2.71 years), demonstrated high CS at baseline and showed significant improvements over time (p < 0.05). At baseline, 59.5% of participants (n = 25) were considered competent eaters (EC ≥ 32). Knowledge in cooking terms and techniques increased after one year (p = 0.023). EC mean scores classified participants as competent eaters at the beginning and after one year, with an increase in the internal regulation domain. Improvements in technical culinary knowledge were associated with gains in contextual skills. Conclusions: Participation in structured cooking classes positively influenced the development of CS and EC internal regulation among nutrition students. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue The Impact of the Food Environment on Diet and Health)
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