Sustainable healthy diets from the lens of behavioral science: an actionable definition for designing relevant individual behavior change interventions

Abstract

Changes in the food system are key for attaining the Sustainable Development Goals. This viewpoint i) contends that, alongside structural changes to the food production and distribution systems, the next years are decisive to foster individual behavior change for sustainable healthy diets, especially in high-income countries; ii) provides a set of behavior change techniques that can contribute to the design of individual interventions aimed at that dietary change; iii) highlights the main weaknesses of previous eating behavior interventions and suggest how they may be overcome, notably by addressing potential negative spillovers and trade-offs; and iv) provides an actionable definition of sustainable healthy diets for designing behavior change interventions. This viewpoint offers a relevant starting point for the design of future interventions targeting individual behavioral change for sustainable healthy diets from a holistic and multi-disciplinary perspective.