Search

Background The Healthy Reference Diet (HRD) was created to formulate dietary guidelines that would be healthy and sustainable. We aimed to construct a diet score measuring adherence to the HRD and to explore its association with cardiovascular events and environmental impact. Methods and Results We included 35 496 participants from the population-based EPIC-NL (European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition-Netherlands) study. HRD scores were calculated using data from food frequency questionnaires (0-140). Data on morbidity and mortality were retrieved through linkage with national and death registries. Data on environmental impact indicators were obtained from life cycle assessments. Associations between adherence to the HRD and cardiovascular events were estimated with Cox proportional hazard models. Linear regression analysis was conducted for the adherence to the HRD and each environmental indicator. High adherence to the HRD was associated with 14%, 12%, and 11% lower risks of cardiovascular disease (hazard ratio [HR]Q4vsQ1, 0.86 [95% CI, 0.78-0.94]), coronary heart disease (HRQ4vsQ1, 0.88 [95% CI, 0.78-1.00]), and total stroke (HRQ4vsQ1, 0.89 [95% CI, 0.72-1.10]), respectively. High HRD adherence was associated with 2.4% (95% CI, -5.0 to 0.2) lower greenhouse gas emissions, 3.9% (95% CI, -5.2 to -2.6) less land use, 0.5% (95% CI, -2.6 to 1.6), less freshwater eutrophication, 3.3% (95% CI, -5.8 to -0.8), less marine eutrophication, 7.7% (95% CI, -10.8 to -4.6), less terrestrial acidification, and 32.1 % (95% CI, 28.5-35.7) higher blue water use. Conclusions High adherence to the HRD was associated with lower risk of cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and modestly lower levels of most environmental indicators but a higher level of blue water use.

Objective: To investigate the effects of a sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) tax and a nutrient profiling tax on consumer food purchases in a virtual supermarket. Design: A randomized controlled trial was conducted with a control condition with regular food prices (n 152), an SSB tax condition (n 130), and a nutrient profiling tax condition based on Nutri-Score (n 112). Participants completed a weekly grocery shop for their household. Primary outcome measures were SSB purchases (ordinal variable) and the overall healthiness of the total shopping basket (proportion of total unit food items classified as healthy). The secondary outcome measure was the energy (kcal) content of the total shopping basket. Data were analysed using regression analyses. Setting: Three-dimensional virtual supermarket. Participants: Dutch adults aged ≥18 years being responsible for grocery shopping in their household (n 394). Results: The SSB tax (OR=1.62, 95%CI 1.03, 2.54) and the nutrient profiling tax (OR=1.88, 95%CI 1.17, 3.02) increased the likelihood of being in a lower-level category of SSB purchases. The overall healthiness of the total shopping basket was higher (+2.7 percent point; 95%CI 0.1, 5.3) and the energy content was lower (-3,301 kcal; 95%CI -6,425, -177) for participants in the nutrient profiling tax condition than for those in the control condition. The SSB tax did not affect the overall healthiness and energy content of the total shopping basket (P>0.05). Conclusions: A nutrient profiling tax targeting a wide range of foods and beverages with a low nutritional quality seems to have larger beneficial effects on consumer food purchases than taxation of SSB alone.