Assessing seafood nutritional diversity together with climate impacts informs more comprehensive dietary advice

Marta Bianchi, Elinor Hallström, Robert W.R. Parker, Kathleen Mifflin, Peter Tyedmers, Friederike Ziegler

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

66 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Seafood holds promise for helping meet nutritional needs at a low climate impact. Here, we assess the nutrient density and greenhouse gas emissions, weighted by production method, that result from fishing and farming of globally important species. The highest nutrient benefit at the lowest emissions is achieved by consuming wild-caught small pelagic and salmonid species, and farmed bivalves like mussels and oysters. Many but not all seafood species provide more nutrition at lower emissions than land animal proteins, especially red meat, but large differences exist, even within species groups and species, depending on production method. Which nutrients contribute to nutrient density differs between seafoods, as do the nutrient needs of population groups within and between countries or regions. Based on the patterns found in nutritional attributes and climate impact, we recommend refocusing and tailoring production and consumption patterns towards species and production methods with improved nutrition and climate performance, taking into account specific nutritional needs and emission reduction goals.

Original languageEnglish
Article number188
JournalCommunications Earth and Environment
Volume3
Issue number1
DOIs
Publication statusPublished - Dec 2022

Bibliographical note

Funding Information:
This research was funded by the Swedish Research Council Formas (Grant 2017-00842).

Publisher Copyright:
© 2022, The Author(s).

ASJC Scopus Subject Areas

  • General Environmental Science
  • General Earth and Planetary Sciences

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Assessing seafood nutritional diversity together with climate impacts informs more comprehensive dietary advice'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this