9. Promote culturally relevant food to enhance access, affordability, and relevance.

Emphasise that the PHD is not a rigid or monolithic prescription, but a flexible dietary pattern compatible with a wide range of cuisines, contexts, and cultural preferences, including both traditional and evolving healthy eating patterns that align with contemporary lifestyles and time constraints. Where relevant, HCP should work with local and indigenous communities to anchor dietary advice in their culinary realities and knowledge.

Story of Progress:  Planetary Health Community of Practice - Nourish

10. Leverage community settings to promote contextually relevant dietary change.

Partner with local educators and community organisers to promote healthy, sustainable diets. Participatory initiatives such as teaching kitchens, food gardens, and experiential learning in clinics, schools, faith-based settings, and neighbourhoods build food literacy, hands-on cooking skills, and shared motivation for lasting change.

Story of Progress: Youth for Agriculture Immersion Program - The Philippines Stakeholder for Nutrition Dietetics (PSND)

1. Move beyond single-nutrient tunnel vision towards a whole-diet approach. 

An excessive focus on individual nutrients can obscure the broader goals of healthy and sustainable eating. HCP should guide patients away from this tunnel vision and towards a whole-diet approach that emphasises diverse, balanced, nutrient-rich, and sustainable dietary patterns. While certain nutrients may require special attention for specific populations, such as iron for women of reproductive age and protein for older adults, minimally processed and plant-rich meals should become the foundation for meeting these needs.

2. Stop serving hospital meals that fall short of healthy, sustainable, and just diet standards.

Hospital meals shape patient experiences and expectations during and after care. They should demonstrate what healthy, sustainable meals look and taste like. Whether meals are prepared in-house or by external caterers, healthcare institutions should adopt procurement practices that prioritise nutrition, sustainability, and justice. This includes amending ingredient sourcing, supplier contracts, and menus to align with the PHD, e.g. by setting targets for minimally processed and plant-rich meals served.

Stories of Progress: ● Healthy Hospital Food - PAN International ● Scaling Plant-Based Meals in Swedish Hospitals - Läkare för Framtiden

3. Stop avoiding the double burden of malnutrition: address both over- and under-nutrition through integrated dietary strategies.

Undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies, overweight, obesity, and diet-related diseases often coexist and should be tackled together. Evidence shows that integrated approaches, such as adopting balanced, healthy, and sustainable diets, can prevent and manage multiple forms of malnutrition simultaneously. HCP should promote individually tailored, balanced, and nutrient-rich diets, while also identifying when increased or restricted energy intake is required or micronutrient supplementation or fortification needed.

4. Stop overlooking taste.

Taste drives food choices. HCP should prioritise flavourful, culturally relevant meals that showcase the variety and creativity possible within the PHD. Practical strategies include supporting food preparation, recipe development, menu innovation, and patient taste-testing, to ensure meals are satisfying and appealing. Exploring new recipes or adapting traditional favourites can help demonstrate that healthy, sustainable food can be delicious and desirable.

5. Stop undermining public trust. Maintain scientific integrity.

HCP, as trusted voices, must counter misleading marketing and narratives on healthy, sustainable diets. They should advocate for evidence-based policies, protect health systems and food environments from undue influence, and ensure communication remains independent. Engagement with industry must be strictly regulated, with conflict-of-interest safeguards, independent evaluation, and full transparency.

1. Policymakers

a. Develop and implement national dietary guidelines that align with the PHD. Integrate them into food policies, procurement standards, and clinical governance frameworks.

b. Rebalance healthcare targets towards prevention. Incentivise healthcare payers, such as insurance companies and public healthcare schemes, to incorporate preventive nutrition care.

c. Ensure fiscal and operational sustainability of nutrition integration in healthcare. Support reimbursement models, coverage, and workforce capacity that make nutrition a standard component of healthcare delivery.

d. Align cross-sector policies, especially health, education, agriculture, and finance, to support the production of and access to healthy, culturally appropriate, and sustainable foods.

e. Reform food pricing to shift affordability and consumption patterns in line with the PHD, scaling up subsidies and incentives for nutritious, minimally processed, and sustainable foods.

f. Create national monitoring frameworks to track dietary quality, sustainability and equity. Use this data to assess impact, increase transparency, and guide policy.

2. Healthcare institutions: executive leadership and administration

a. Champion system-wide change towards healthy, sustainable, and just diets by setting clear priorities, securing long-term investment, aligning financial practices and policies with the PHD, and appointing dedicated staff (e.g. sustainability officers and cross-functional leads).

b. Support healthcare professionals as food system advocates with training, resources, and institutional support.

c. Address workforce gaps, particularly in under-resourced or rural areas, by ensuring PHD-related training and the presence of dietitians and nutritionists.

d. Reform procurement and food governance by shifting food budgeting to clinical services, and integrating food service operations within patient care.

3. Hospital food departments, catering, and chefs

a. Create healthy food environments, nutrition-tailored meals, and scalable menus that align hospital food offerings, cafeterias, patient meals, and vending machines with the PHD.

b. Create opportunities for mutual learning and collaboration between chefs and healthcare professionals to test and share plant-forward culinary techniques in healthcare settings.

c. Establish food-waste reduction and tracking systems, with regular monitoring across procurement, preparation, and service stages.

4. Educational Institutions and Accreditation Bodies

a. Align nutrition and health curricula with the PHD, and endorse centralised training resources that integrate planetary health and social determinants of nutrition.

b. Leverage accredited continuing professional development programmes to train healthcare professionals across disciplines and specialties.

c. Embed accountability mechanisms and performance criteria that integrate food and nutrition into healthcare delivery and education.

This Action Brief is a living tool developed for and with healthcare professionals, aiming to guide collaboration and action across the sector in line with the 2025 EAT-Lancet Commission. 

Healthcare professionals are encouraged to adopt and adapt this brief to their contexts, scaling its reach and amplifying its impact by:

• Adapting the information in this Action Brief to your local context, using it to inform national and regional conversations where health and nutrition policies are shaped, translating and disseminating its content for relevant political events and processes.

• Sharing the brief across professional and practitioner networks to inspire action, particularly during accredited learning opportunities, through professional newsletters, and in WhatsApp/LinkedIn groups where healthcare professionals already connect.

• Using this brief’s language and concepts to inform narratives in media, social media, and community dialogues. Create op-eds, blogs, and infographics connecting planetary health diet principles to local health issues.

• Getting inspired by our Community for Action. The calls to action in this brief are brought to life by Stories of Progress from leaders driving change in food and healthcare.

For more information, contact: info@pan-int.org . Alternatively, you can join PANCO, PAN’s online platform for nutrition professionals around the world: panco.mn.co.