How climate-friendly does Tyrol eat?

Peer-reviewed | Manuscript submitted: January 08, 2018 | Revision accepted: March 14, 2018

Analysis of nutrition-related greenhouse gas emissions in a population in Western Austria compared to national dietary recommendations¹

Introduction

The first Tyrol nutrition survey (TEE2015) was conducted in 2015 at the Health University of Applied Sciences Tyrol with its results incorporated into the Austrian Nutrition Survey’s report which was published in November 2017 [1]. The requirements for an appropriate modern diet should take both health and sustainability aspects into account, including the dimensions of health, ecology, society, economy, and culture [2, 3]. Therefore, as we are looking at both health and ecological aspects, we must not only ask how healthy Tyroleans eat, but also how their eating habits contribute to greenhouse gas emissions. In addition, the data from the TEE2015 regarding environmental effects was compared with the data from the national nutrition recommendations.

Method

In a cross-sectional study, food intake of 463 adults in Tyrol (235 women, 228 men) aged between 18 and 64 years was assessed by two non-consecutive 24-hour recalls. The recommendations of the Austrian nutrition pyramid [4], and the data from the TEE2015 were analyzed using secondary data from Life Cycle Assessments (LCA) to determine CO₂ equivalents for each food group. Various LCAs were used as a reference from a study by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), which had already reviewed the data for Austria [5]. In order to facilitate the comparison of the results, the values were standardized to an energy intake of 2000 kcal. The average CO₂eq and the nutrient intake of the study population were calculated and compared using ANCOVA and t-Test.

¹ Updated version of a poster from the 2017 Conference of the Austrian Nutrition Society in Vienna

Abstract

Using consumption data from the first Tyrol Nutrition Survey 2015 (erste Tiroler Ernährungserhebung 2015 [TEE2015]), nutrition-related CO₂ equivalents (CO₂eq) were calculated. In addition, a diet that corresponds to the Austrian nutrition recommendations was analyzed with regard to CO₂eq and compared to the TEE2015 values. In Tyrol, milk and dairy products along with meat and meat products account for 42% of nutrition-related greenhouse gas emissions. The results show once again that healthy and sustainable diets require, above all, the reduction of meat consumption.

Keywords: sustainable nutrition, nutritional recommendations, CO₂ equivalents, carbon footprint, greenhouse gas emissions, ecological sustainability

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