A Methodology for Identifying the Green Design of Healthy Diets: An Empirical Analysis Based on a Multidimensional Assessment Framework

Abstract

With the growing global focus on sustainable development, the food system faces unprecedented dual challenges related to the environment and health. On one hand, irrational production and consumption patterns exacerbate environmental issues such as greenhouse gas emissions, water consumption, and biodiversity loss. On the other hand, unhealthy dietary structures have become a major risk factor for the prevalence of chronic non-communicable diseases. Against this backdrop, the green design of healthy diets has emerged, aiming to achieve a balance between nutritional health, environmental protection, economic feasibility, and socio-cultural acceptability through a systematic approach. However, the current field lacks a unified and effective standard and methodology for scientifically and systematically identifying and evaluating the "green" attributes of healthy diets. Existing research, often from a single dimension (such as nutrition or environmental science), fails to comprehensively characterize the complex connotations of green design for healthy diets, leading to fragmented assessment results that cannot provide comprehensive decision support for policy-making and industrial practice. This study aims to fill this gap by constructing a multidimensional assessment framework integrating five dimensions—health, environment, design, socio-culture, and economy—to provide a scientific and operational methodological system for identifying the green design of healthy diets. Employing a design innovation methodology combined with life-cycle assessment (LCA), nutritional analysis, and consumer preference surveys, the study develops a comprehensive assessment tool comprising 35 specific indicators. Through an empirical analysis of dietary data from 1200 residents in four first-tier cities in China, this study not only validates the effectiveness and reliability of the assessment framework but also identifies three typical green design patterns for healthy diets and reveals the key factors influencing their adoption. Under a transparent set of illustrative scenarios (documented in Supplementary Sx), we observed that certain dietary adjustments have the potential to reduce environmental footprints while maintaining or improving diet-quality scores. The magnitude of change depends on scenario assumptions (substitution rules, portion constraints, and price references), which are fully reported; therefore, these results should be interpreted as scenario-based estimates rather than universal guarantees. The theoretical contribution of this study lies in providing a multidimensional theoretical analysis perspective and a systematic identification method for the green design of healthy diets. On a practical level, the research findings can provide a scientific basis and decision-making reference for governments in formulating relevant food policies, for enterprises in developing sustainable food products, and for guiding the public to transition towards healthier, greener dietary patterns, thereby promoting the sustainable transformation of the entire food system.