Exploring Complexities, In-Depth Analyses I

Abstract: There is increasing awareness of the need to reduce the consumption of red and processed meat on both health and environmental grounds. Using 15 years of data, I estimate the demand for meat in the UK with the aim of understanding the underlying drivers and informing policy design. I look separately at the extensive margin (“how many households eat meat”) and the intensive margin (“how much meat is consumed by each, conditional on positive spending”). Reductions on either the extensive or intensive margin can help meet environmental targets, while reductions on the intensive margin are more important for health targets. I also model the effect of a wide range of economic and demographic factors on demand at both margins. I find a downward trend in the demand for meat purchased at both margins. While changes at the extensive margin cannot be explained by demographic and socio-economic factors, changes at the intensive margin can, with processed meat being particularly sensitive to prices. I also find other effects, including education (-), working class (+), white (+), male head (+) and age (inverted U). I discuss the implications of these findings for reaching government targets in the health and environmental context.

Abstract: Introduction: 2011-2021, 41 million people die from non-communicable diseases (NCDs) each year, accounting for 71% of all global deaths. China contributes the largest number of patients and deaths related to NCDs. Additionally, the morbidity and mortality attributed to NCDs in China are keeping increasing. Unhealthy diet is regarded as an important modifiable behavioural risk factor for NCDs. Therefore, several diet recommendations have been provided for a healthy diet to modify the risk. Traditional diets have been recommended to reduce the increasing prevalence of NCDs. Traditional Chinese diet (TCD), in some reports, is suggested to contain moderate amounts of meat and fish, plenty of vegetables, and starches, which may also reduce the risk of NCDs. However, the explorations of TCD are relatively under-researched. No consistent definition of TCD in the literature available and no study that systematically assesses the definition of TCD in literature.

Method: a systematic review was conducted to identify how TCD is described in the literature to date and provide a definition. A secondary aim was to examine whether the TCD is associated with NCD outcomes. A search had been conducted among 14 electronic databases up to 25th April 2022. Results were reported by using the PRISMA guidelines.