# The Role of a Sustainable Planetary Health Diet in the Prevention of Non-Communicable Diseases and Cause-Specific Mortality: A Narrative Review

## TL;DR

This review examines how the Planetary Health Diet affects non-communicable diseases and mortality, highlighting its benefits and areas needing more research.

## Contribution

The paper summarizes current evidence on the Planetary Health Diet's impact and identifies gaps for future randomized trials.

## Key findings

- Higher adherence to the PHD is linked to lower risks of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and all-cause mortality.
- Cohort studies show the PHD reduces CVD and cancer mortality, but associations with stroke and hypertension need confirmation.
- Randomized controlled trials are needed to validate the PHD's effects across diverse populations and regions.

## Abstract

Taking into account both the health and environmental aspects of food, the EAT-Lancet Commission proposed a healthy reference diet (Planetary Health Diet—PHD). The aim of this narrative review is to summarize the results obtained in epidemiological studies on the association between the PHD and risk factors, non-communicable diseases, and cause-specific mortality. The literature search was conducted in February 2025 and was based on the PubMed electronic database. The results of this review are divided into four parts, which include the results of cohort studies, cross-sectional studies, case–control studies, and meta-analyses. This review, showing what types of studies have been conducted so far, allows for a summary of the current knowledge of the relationship between the PHD and risk factors, non-communicable diseases, and cause-specific mortality. Cohort studies provided most of the results, which confirmed that higher adherence to the PHD has a beneficial effect on human health, especially taking into account the lower risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease (CVD) and CVD mortality, cancer and cancer mortality, as well as all-cause mortality. However, it is concluded that the association between the PHD and stroke, different types of stroke, hypertension, dyslipidemia, and some specific types of cancer must be confirmed. Specifically, randomized controlled trials should be conducted, as, to our knowledge, there is a lack of these types of studies to date. Such studies should be conducted in different regions using the Planetary Health Diet adapted to the local, cultural, geographical, and demographical aspects of a particular region.