Determining the Balance between Diet Quality and Sustainability across Generations and within a Real-World Urban Mexico Sample

This project examines how diet quality and environmental sustainability can be balanced across generations, using the established ELEMENT cohort in Mexico City. The collaboration grew from a University of Michigan food systems event, where the team recognized that the cohort led by researchers at the Instituto Nacional de Salud Pública offered a rare opportunity to study when in development eating behaviors are most shaped and how dietary change intersects with the environmental footprint of food. Bringing together expertise in child development, nutritional epidemiology and sustainable urban food systems, the team analyzes real-world dietary data to understand the tradeoffs families navigate. The findings aim to inform nutrition policy that advances both healthier diets and environmental sustainability in urban Mexico.