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Life expectancy and agricultural environmental impacts in Addis Ababa can be improved through optimized plant and animal protein consumption

Nature Food volume 2, pages 291–298 (2021)Cite this article

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Abstract

In Ethiopia, children and adults face a double burden of malnutrition, with undernutrition and stunting coexisting with non-communicable diseases. Here we use a framework of comparative risk assessment, local dietary surveys and relative risks from large observational studies to quantify the health and environmental impacts of meeting adult and child recommended daily protein intakes in urban Addis Ababa. We find that plant-based foods, especially legumes, would have the lowest environmental impact and substantially increase life expectancy in adults, while animal-source proteins could be beneficial for children. This context-specific approach—accounting for regional constraints and trade-offs—could aid policymakers in developing culturally appropriate, nutritionally adequate and sustainable dietary recommendations.

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Fig. 1: Conceptual framework.
Fig. 2: Life expectancy and environmental impacts of meeting protein reference intake.
Fig. 3: Environmental impacts in relation to supply boundaries in Addis Ababa.

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Data availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are not publicly available due to limits on the data-sharing agreement by partners in Ethiopia, in compliance with institutional regulations. The data are available on reasonable request.

Code availability

All computer code used to generate results that are reported in the paper and central to its main claims is available upon request, to editors and reviewers.

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Acknowledgements

We thank M. Herrero and C. Godde for providing detailed livestock data for Ethiopia. This work was supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/R002118/1).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Global Health and Population, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Mia M. Blakstad, Goodarz Danaei, Alexandra L. Bellows, Chelsey R. Canavan, Lilia Bliznashka & Wafaie W. Fawzi

  2. Department of Epidemiology, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Goodarz Danaei & Wafaie W. Fawzi

  3. Addis Continental Institute of Public Health, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia

    Amare W. Tadesse & Yemane Berhane

  4. Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, London, UK

    Amare W. Tadesse

  5. Department of Environmental Health, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Kerstin Damerau & Samuel S. Myers

  6. Institute of Vocational Education and Work Studies, Technische Universität Berlin, Berlin, Germany

    Kerstin Damerau

  7. The Greater Boston Food Bank, Boston, MA, USA

    Rachel Zack

  8. Department of Nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, USA

    Wafaie W. Fawzi

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  1. Mia M. Blakstad
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Contributions

M.M.B., G.D., A.L.B., C.R.C., S.S.M. and W.W.F. designed the research study. A.W.T., Y.B. and W.W.F. conducted field research and oversaw implementation. M.M.B., G.D., R.Z. and K.D. analysed the data. M.M.B. wrote the paper. M.M.B. and W.W.F. have primary responsibility for final content. A.L.B. conducted the literature review. L.B. and S.S.M. critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content. All authors read and approved the final manuscript and are accountable for all aspects of the work.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mia M. Blakstad.

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Competing interests

The authors declare no competing interests. The funder of the study had no role in study design, data collection, data analysis, data interpretation or writing of the report. All authors had full access to all the data in the study and the corresponding author had final responsibility for the decision to submit for publication.

Additional information

Peer review information Nature Food thanks Baye Kaleab, Jules Siedenburg and Roseline Remans for their contribution to the peer review of this work.

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Blakstad, M.M., Danaei, G., Tadesse, A.W. et al. Life expectancy and agricultural environmental impacts in Addis Ababa can be improved through optimized plant and animal protein consumption. Nat Food 2, 291–298 (2021). https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00264-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00264-2

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