Abstract
Dietary diversity is vital for public health nutrition, yet the co-benefits of increasing dietary species richness (DSR) on human and environmental health remain unassessed. Here we explore associations between DSR and greenhouse gas emissions, land use, nutrient adequacy and mortality rates among European Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study participants. Total DSR was positively associated with probability of adequate nutrient intake diet scores and inversely related to mortality rates; similar results were observed for plant DSR. Animal DSR was inversely associated with probability of adequate nutrient intake diet scores and neutrally associated with mortality rates. Neutral associations for total DSR and positive associations for animal DSR were found with greenhouse gas emissions and land use. Conversely, plant DSR was inversely associated with greenhouse gas emissions and land use. These findings from Europe suggest modest benefits of dietary plant biodiversity for nutrient adequacy and environmental health, with stronger inverse associations with mortality rates, while highlighting the potential adverse environmental impacts of diets rich in animal-sourced foods.
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Data availability
EPIC data and biospecimens are available to investigators in the context of research projects that are consistent with the legal and ethical standard practices of IARC/World Health Organization (WHO) and the EPIC centres. The use of a random sample of anonymized data from the EPIC study can be requested by contacting https://epic.iarc.fr/. For information on the EPIC data access policy and on how to submit an application for gaining access to EPIC data and/or biospecimens, please follow the instructions at iarc.who.int.
Code availability
Analytical code is available via Code Ocean at https://codeocean.com/capsule/0563231/tree.
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Acknowledgements
The coordination of the European Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC) study is financially supported by International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) and also by the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics, School of Public Health, Imperial College London, which has additional infrastructure support provided by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Imperial Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). The national cohorts are supported by the Danish Cancer Society (Denmark); the Ligue Contre le Cancer, Institut Gustave Roussy, Mutuelle Générale de l’Education Nationale and Institut National de la Santé et de la Recherche Médicale (INSERM) (France); German Cancer Aid, the German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), the German Institute of Human Nutrition Potsdam-Rehbruecke (DIfE) and the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) (Germany); the Associazione Italiana per la Ricerca sul Cancro-AIRC-Italy and the Compagnia di SanPaolo and National Research Council (Italy); the Dutch Ministry of Public Health, Welfare and Sports (VWS), the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NKR), the LK Research Funds, the Dutch Prevention Funds, Dutch ZON (Zorg Onderzoek Nederland), the World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) and Statistics Netherlands (the Netherlands); Health Research Fund (FIS)-Instituto de Salud Carlos III (ISCIII), the Regional Governments of Andalucía, Asturias, Basque Country, Murcia and Navarra, and the Catalan Institute of Oncology (ICO) (Spain); the Swedish Cancer Society, the Swedish Research Council and the County Councils of Skåne and Västerbotten (Sweden); Cancer Research UK (14136 to EPIC-Norfolk; C8221/A29017 to EPIC-Oxford) and the Medical Research Council (1000143 to EPIC-Norfolk; MR/M012190/1 to EPIC-Oxford) (UK); and UiT The Arctic University of Norway (Norway). Funding for grant no. IIG_FULL_2020_034 was obtained from Wereld Kanker Onderzoek Fonds (WKOF) as part of the World Cancer Research Fund International grant programme. P.V. is supported by the NIHR Global Health Research Centre on Non-Communicable Diseases (NCDs) and Environmental Change (NIHR203247). E.K.C. was supported by the Ministry of National Education, Türkiye as part of their YLSY International Graduate Education Scholarship programme. Researchers were independent from the funders. The funders had no role in the collection, analysis and interpretation of the data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to submit the article for publication. Where authors are identified as personnel of IARC/WHO, the authors alone are responsible for the views expressed in this article, and they do not necessarily represent the decisions, policy or views of IARC/WHO.
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Conceptualization: J. Berden, C.L. and I.H. Data curation: I.H., G.N. and P.F. Formal analysis: J. Berden, I.H. and G.N. Funding acquisition: G.T.H.-C., I.H., C.L. and M.T. Investigation: J. Berden, B.C., G.T.H.-C., E.K.C., P.V., G.N., G. Skeie, B. Srour, E.K.-G., M.T., J. Baudry, M.D.-T., J. Berden, Y.v.d.S., K.M., F.J., A.T., C.K., C.C.D., D.B.I., C.L.C., M.B.S., L.M., C.M., E.W., A.H., G. Severi, C.C., A.J.-Z., B. Sodano, C.C.-E., J.C., K.T., M.-D.C., M.-J.S., P.C., S.P., V.K., M.G., P.F., C.L. and I.H. Methodology: J. Berden, C.L. and I.H. Project administration: J. Berden, C.L. and I.H. Resources: G.T.H.-C., P.V., G.N., G. Skeie, Y.v.d.S., K.M., F.J., A.T., C.K., C.C.D., D.B.I., C.L.C., M.B.S., C.M., E.W., A.H., G. Severi, C.C., A.J.-Z., B. Sodano, C.C.-E., J.C., K.T., M.-D.C., M.-J.S., P.C., S.P., V.K., M.G., P.F., C.L. and I.H. Software: J. Berden. Supervision: C.L. and I.H. Visualization: J. Berden. Validation: G.N., C.L. and I.H. Writing—original draft: J. Berden. Writing—review and editing: B.C., G.T.H.-C., E.K.C., P.V., G.N., G. Skeie, B. Srour, E.K.-G., M.T., J. Baudry, M.D.-T., J. Berlivet, Y.v.d.S., K.M., F.J., A.T., C.K., C.C.D., D.B.I., C.L.C., M.B.S., L.M., C.M., E.W., A.H., G. Severi, C.C., A.J.-Z., B. Sodano, C.C.-E., J.C., K.T., M.-D.C., M.-J.S., P.C., S.P., V.K., M.G., P.F., C.L. and I.H.
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Supplementary Texts 1 and 2, Fig. 1 and Tables 1–19.
Supplementary Data 1
Supplementary data for the hazard ratios and rate advancement periods (95% CI) for the association between DSR and all-cause mortality.
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Berden, J., Chimera, B., Hanley-Cook, G.T. et al. Biodiverse diets present co-benefits for greenhouse gas emissions, land use, mortality rates and nutritional adequacy in Europe. Nat Food 6, 857–867 (2025). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01214-y
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01214-y