5 WAYS TO EAT MORE SUSTAINABLY

*Disclaimer: Please note that parts of this English blog were automatically translated.*

Our climate is under considerable pressure. Although solving the climate problem requires large-scale action on a global scale, you can also do your part as an individual.

One way to do this is by eating environmentally conscious food more often. Eating more plant-based (rather than animal-based) products, buying foods that have a lower environmental impact, and recycling food waste all contribute to lower greenhouse gas emissions and are therefore of value to the climate.^[1] Would you like to eat more sustainalby, or help someone eat more sustainably?

Then try one of these strategies:

1. Make small changes in your environment that help you make the sustainable choice, the easiest or default choice. This is also called nudging. ^[2] For example, put the plant-based yogurt at the front of the refrigerator, making it more noticeable, or (perhaps even more effective), substitute yogurt for a plant-based alternative in your grocery list. Tip: many large supermarkets have an app where you can save a standard shopping list.
2. Create visual reminders to remind you of your sustainable resolutions. For example, stick a post-it on the trash can saying “Don’t forget to separate your trash!”. Want to go big? Then you can design your own stickers with reminders that are important to you. These types of visual prompts are a special form of nudging, also called priming, and are most effective when you want to make a relatively simple change and are already motivated to do so. ^[2]
3. Create an “if-then plan” in which you write down specifically what you will do in a given situation. For example, “If I have lunch with a sandwich, then I will choose a plant-based option such as humus, vegetable spread, or peanut butter.” This is called an implementation intention and promotes your self-regulation, and it can encourage plant-based choices.^[3]  This type of intention works better if you phrase it positively (“I choose plant-based toppings” rather than “I don’t choose animal-based toppings.”)^[4]
4. Inform yourself about the importance of sustainable food choices. Well-informed people are more likely to make the sustainable choice. For example, people who were informed about the impact of the meat industry on animal welfare ate meat less often.^[5] An important prerequisite, however, is that you are motivated to change your behavior.^[2] You can find reliable information about the importance of sustainable eating at Milieu Centraal and Voedingscentrum.
5. Monitor yourself and keep track of your sustainable choices. Tracking behavior gives insight into your patterns and stimulates awareness. It helps to set a concrete goal, such as “I will buy seasonal fruit produced in the Netherlands twice a week.”^[6] There are many habit trackers available to track your progress. When setting your goal, it helps to avoid an all-or-nothing mentality. For example, reducing meat consumption appears to be more effective than eliminating meat from your diet all at once.^[7]

Do these tips not instantly work? Then don’t be too hard on yourself. As Maartje wrote in her blog, changing behavior is extremely difficult. Also be aware that much of our eating behavior is shaped by long-standing habits and preferences formed in early childhood, and that we often eat as a reaction to cues from the environment (such as the smell of a freshly baked croissant).^[8] However, this does not mean that you can’t steer these automatic eating choices in the desired direction. Therefore, the first three strategies aim to redirect rapid, unconscious eating processes. In addition, it is certainly not impossible to make conscious choices about food. For example, the attitudes you have about food (such as the importance of organic products) are strongly related to the actual food intake (of organic products) itself,^[9] so the latter two strategies play into these slower, more conscious processes.

Which strategy would you like to try?

This blog was written by Levie Karssen (Radboud University) for RAD-blog, the blog on smoking, alcohol, drugs and diet.

References:

1. Garnett, T. (2016). Plating up solutions. Science, 353, 1202–1204. doi: 10.1126/science.aah4765
2. Abrahamse, W. (2020). How to effectively encourage sustainable food choices: A mini-review of available evidence. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 589674. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2020.589674
3. Taufik, D., Verain, M. C., Bouwman, E. P., & Reinders, M. J. (2019). Determinants of real-life behavioural interventions to stimulate more plant-based and less animal-based diets: A systematic review. Trends in Food Science & Technology, 93, 281-303. doi: 10.1016/j.tifs.2019.09.019
4. Adriaanse, M. A., Vinkers, C. D., De Ridder, D. T., Hox, J. J., & De Wit, J. B. (2011). Do implementation intentions help to eat a healthy diet? A systematic review and meta-analysis of the empirical evidence. Appetite, 56(1), 183-193. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2010.10.012
5. Mathur, M. B., Peacock, J., Reichling, D. B., Nadler, J., Bain, P. A., Gardner, C. D., & Robinson, T. N. (2021). Interventions to reduce meat consumption by appealing to animal welfare: Meta-analysis and evidence-based recommendations. Appetite, 164, 105277. doi: 10.1016/j.appet.2021.105277
6. Bianchi, F., Dorsel, C., Garnett, E., Aveyard, P., & Jebb, S. A. (2018). Interventions targeting conscious determinants of human behaviour to reduce the demand for meat: a systematic review with qualitative comparative analysis. International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, 15, 1-25. doi: 10.1186/s12966-018-0729-6
7. Sparkman, G., Macdonald, B. N., Caldwell, K. D., Kateman, B., & Boese, G. D. (2021). Cut back or give it up? The effectiveness of reduce and eliminate appeals and dynamic norm messaging to curb meat consumption. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 75, 101592. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvp.2021.101592
8. Fürtjes, S., King, J. A., Goeke, C., Seidel, M., Goschke, T., Horstmann, A., & Ehrlich, S. (2020). Automatic and controlled processing: implications for eating behavior. Nutrients, 12(4), 1097. doi: 10.3390/nu12041097
9. Nardi, V. A. M., Jardim, W. C., Ladeira, W., & Santini, F. (2019). Predicting food choice: A meta-analysis based on the theory of planned behavior. British Food Journal, 121, 2250–2264. doi: 10.1108/bfj-08-2018-0504