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Title: Greenhouse gases, land use, and water withdrawals associated with protein foods within the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension

Citation Type: Dissertation/Thesis

Publication Year: 2021

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Abstract: Background: The Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) is a clinically proven dietary pattern that reduces blood pressure, which is of relevance in America where nearly half of the population has hypertension. Specific to protein foods, the DASH dietary pattern promotes lean mean and plant protein consumption and limits red and processed meat consumption. Limiting red and processed meat consumption will likely benefit both human and environmental health as red/processed meats are associated with many chronic diseases and red meat production is more environmentally demanding than other protein foods. Previous research concluded that DASH compliant diets were associated with less greenhouse gases (GHG) and reported less red/processed meat intake. Beyond GHG, the environmental impacts of the DASH dietary pattern are not well understood. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the environmental sustainability (e.g., GHG, land use, and water withdrawals) of the protein foods in diets of participants encouraged to follow the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH diet). Methods: We hypothesized that the most compliant DASH diets would contain fewer environmentally demanding protein foods compared to the least accordant diets. Diet recalls were obtained from 35-70 year-old, hypertensive Midwesterners (n=406) using the Automatic Self-Administered 24-Hour Recall system. Land use, GHG, and water withdrawals were estimated using the Economic Input-Output Life Cycle Assessment model (www.eiolca.net) for a cradle to consumer prediction. Compliance to the DASH diet was evaluated using a nutrientbased DASH score. The association between various DASH nutrient scores and GHG, land use, and water withdrawals of total, animal, and plant protein foods were determined using multiple linear regressions. Results: In general, higher accordance with DASH nutrient targets appears to be associated with less GHG, water withdrawals, and land use for total and animal protein but more GHG, water withdrawals, and land use for plant protein foods, with few exceptions. Specifically, higher adherence with cholesterol, sodium, and fiber recommendations are associated with lower environmental impacts for total and animal protein foods but higher environmental impacts for plant protein foods. The only exception is potassium, in which higher potassium scores are associated with higher environmental impacts for total and animal protein foods but lower environmental impacts for plant protein foods. Conclusions: Greater adherence to the DASH diet may lead to lower environmental impacts from total protein foods, likely due to decreased consumption of animal protein foods but higher consumption of plant protein foods. With growing concerns of climate change, reducing environmental impacts could be a potential motivator for following the DASH diet. Evaluation of the entire diet will be performed in future research.

Url: https://www.proquest.com/docview/2580091963?pq-origsite=gscholar&fromopenview=true

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Authors: Kling, Nicole Raeann

Institution: Iowa State University

Department: Food Science and Human Nutrition

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Publisher Location: Ames

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Data Collections: IPUMS USA

Topics: Health, Natural Resource Management

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