Health and Sustainable Nutritional Choices from Childhood: Dietary Pattern and Social Models

Abstract

Background: The role of diet in the pediatric age for optimal development, achievement, and maintenance of a healthy status is well recognized. Increasing attention is nowadays also paid to reducing the burden of human nutrition on the planet's health for present and future generations.

Summary: Beyond environmental sustainability, the transition to diets rich in animal and processed foods contributes to an overall unhealthy nutritional status leading to an increased prevalence of obesity- and diet-related noncommunicable diseases. Childhood overweight and obesity are a growing public health crisis worldwide. The aim of this narrative review was to summarize evidence of the nutritional status and dietary habits in children and the link with environmental sustainability.

Key message: Optimizing nutrition in infancy and establishing healthy lifestyles from the preschool years might help to reduce the risk of overweight, and all the disorders related, respecting the sustainability dimension.

Keywords: Dietary patterns; Environment; Nutrition; Nutritional habits; Sustainability.