Global coupling coordination and interactions between diet, environment, and human health

Diet choices and changes are closely linked to environment sustainability and human health. However, a quantitive evaluation of coupling coordination and interactions between diet, environment and human health is still lacking. Here we mapped global coupling coordination degree (CCD) of diet related to 95 food products and associated environmental and health impacts across 175 countries and regions from 2010 to 2020. Results show that global dietary development lags behind environmental and health development with 162 countries having a moderate CCD. Most countries experience environmental degradation while promoting dietary and health systems. Visible trade-offs between food-related water footprints, land footprints, and greenhouse gas emissions exist in space and time. Increasing vegetable and fish intake in China only contribute 228.7% to the reduction in diet-related deaths globally. This analysis provides an efficient approach for measuring the strong coupling between diet, environment, and health systems and subsystems towards their mutual coordination and sustainability.