UWSpace is currently experiencing technical difficulties resulting from its recent migration to a new version of its software. These technical issues are not affecting the submission and browse features of the site. UWaterloo community members may continue submitting items to UWSpace. We apologize for the inconvenience, and are actively working to resolve these technical issues.
 

Carbon Footprinting Dietary Choices in Ontario: A life cycle approach to assessing sustainable, healthy & socially acceptable diets

Simple item page
dc.contributor.advisorDias, Goretty Mariaen
dc.contributor.authorVeeramani, Anastasia
dc.date.accessioned2015-08-17T19:13:26Z
dc.date.available2015-08-17T19:13:26Z
dc.date.issued2015-08-17
dc.date.submitted2015
dc.description.abstractRecent studies have established the link between food consumption and its broad impact on the environment. However, environmental implications of dietary choices have not been previously studied in Canada. Given geographic variations of eating habits and environmental impacts, this study aims to explore current dietary patterns and their environmental implications in Ontario. This exploratory study assesses the environmental impact of seven dietary patterns and investigates the role of nutrition and dietary guidelines in evaluating sustainability of diets. Food baskets representing each dietary pattern were formed based on data obtained from dietary recall survey. Using Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), greenhouse gas emissions were estimated for farm operations, processing, distribution and household processes associated with current food consumption. Canada’s dietary guidelines were used to assess the nutritional quality of current diets and propose nutritionally optimal dietary changes. Results showed that Ontario population overconsumes protein. Popular dietary patterns including foods rich in animal protein exhibit the highest impact. This interdisciplinary approach helps combine nutritional and environmental research which can facilitate the formulation of environmentally friendly, healthy and socially acceptable diets. The study outlines key limitations in diet-related LCA, provides recommendations for improvement and serves as a primer for further diet-related research in Canada.en
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10012/9538
dc.language.isoenen
dc.pendingfalse
dc.publisherUniversity of Waterloo
dc.subjectcarbon footprintingen
dc.subjectlife cycle assessmenten
dc.subjectdietary patternsen
dc.subjectnutritionen
dc.subjectgreenhouse gas emissionsen
dc.subjectdietary guidelinesen
dc.subjectfooden
dc.subjectclimate changeen
dc.subjectnutritional ecologyen
dc.subject.lcshclimatic changesen
dc.subject.lcshnutritionen
dc.subject.lcshfooden
dc.subject.lcshgreenhouse gas mitigationen
dc.subject.lcshlife cycle costingen
dc.subject.lcshsustainable developmenten
dc.subject.programSustainability Managementen
dc.titleCarbon Footprinting Dietary Choices in Ontario: A life cycle approach to assessing sustainable, healthy & socially acceptable dietsen
dc.typeMaster Thesisen
uws-etd.degreeMaster of Environmental Studiesen
uws-etd.degree.departmentEnvironment, Enterprise, and Development (School of)en
uws.peerReviewStatusUnrevieweden
uws.scholarLevelGraduateen
uws.typeOfResourceTexten

Files

Original bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
Thumbnail Image
Name:
Veeramani_Anastasia.pdf
Size:
1.96 MB
Format:
Adobe Portable Document Format
Download
License bundle
Now showing 1 - 1 of 1
No Thumbnail Available
Name:
license.txt
Size:
6.17 KB
Format:
Item-specific license agreed upon to submission
Description:
Download

Collections

Theses
Environment, Enterprise and Development