Environmental Sustainability and Chronic Disease Outcomes across Four Sustainable Dietary Patterns

Global food consumption patterns have undergone substantial transformation in recent decades, driven by rapid population growth and the consequent intensification of agricultural production. This growth, however, has come at significant environmental cost. As food consumption practices play a central role in shaping these impacts, shifts toward environmentally sustainable diets-typically characterized by greater reliance on plant-based foods-have been proposed as a viable mitigation strategy. However, the extent to which such dietary patterns can simultaneously confer environmental benefits and reduce chronic disease risk remains insufficiently characterized. Addressing this gap, this narrative review evaluates the environmental sustainability and health implications of 4 widely promoted sustainable dietary patterns-vegetarian, vegan, Mediterranean, and EAT-Lancet-by summarizing key sustainability metrics and systematically assessing contemporary evidence linking these diets to chronic disease outcomes. Our analysis underscores the importance of integrating climate impacts with health benefits when evaluating dietary interventions.