Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts

Giles T Hanley-Cook; Jill Deygers; Aisling J Daly; Jeroen Berden; Roseline Remans; Celine Termote; Daniel B Ibsen; Julia Baudry; Patrick Van Damme; Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot; Paolo Vineis; Matthias B Schulze; Ky The Hoang; Mélanie Deschasaux-Tanguy; Alicia Heath; Christina C Dahm; Yvonne T van der Schouw; Guri Skeie; Marcela Guevara; Lorenzo Milani; Daniela Penafiel; Jessica E Raneri; Francis Odhiambo Oduor; Danny Hunter; Disna Ratnasekera; Kris A Murray; Mathilde Touvier; Inge Huybrechts; Carl Lachat

doi:10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts

Giles T Hanley-Cook, Jill Deygers, Aisling J Daly, Jeroen Berden, Roseline Remans, Celine Termote, Daniel B Ibsen, Julia Baudry, Patrick Van Damme, Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot, Paolo Vineis, Matthias B Schulze, Ky The Hoang, Mélanie Deschasaux-Tanguy, Alicia Heath, Christina C Dahm, Yvonne T van der Schouw, Guri Skeie, Marcela Guevara, Lorenzo MilaniDaniela Penafiel, Jessica E Raneri, Francis Odhiambo Oduor, Danny Hunter, Disna Ratnasekera, Kris A Murray, Mathilde Touvier, Inge Huybrechts, Carl Lachat^*

^*Corresponding author for this work

Research output: Contribution to journal/Conference contribution in journal/Contribution to newspaper › Journal article › Research › peer-review

Abstract

Ecological diversity indices such as Hill numbers have been developed to estimate effective species numbers, yet the ability of Hill numbers to compare food biodiversity across contexts is unclear. Here we computed the between- and within-country variability of similarity-insensitive Hill numbers using dietary intake collected from prospective cohorts in nine European countries and cross-sectional studies in five low- and middle-income countries. We also assessed the relationships between more biodiverse diets, mortality rates and micronutrient adequacy. Only Hill0, better known as dietary species richness (DSR), showed strong heterogeneity between countries and individuals within countries. Higher DSR was most strongly associated with lower mortality rates in Europe as compared to Hill1, Hill2 and Hill∞, whereas relationships with micronutrient adequacy were comparable across Hill numbers in the global south. DSR can be used to assess progress towards more biodiverse diets, while also serving as a marker for the deleterious nutrition and health impacts associated with non-diverse diets.

Original language	English
Article number	e5656
Journal	Nature Food
Number of pages	14
ISSN	2662-1355
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6
Publication status	E-pub / Early view - 24 Mar 2025

Keywords

nutrition

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Hanley-Cook, G. T., Deygers, J., Daly, A. J., Berden, J., Remans, R., Termote, C., Ibsen, D. B., Baudry, J., Van Damme, P., Kesse-Guyot, E., Vineis, P., Schulze, M. B., Hoang, K. T., Deschasaux-Tanguy, M., Heath, A., Dahm, C. C., van der Schouw, Y. T., Skeie, G., Guevara, M., ... Lachat, C. (2025). Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts. Nature Food, Article e5656. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

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title = "Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts",

abstract = "Ecological diversity indices such as Hill numbers have been developed to estimate effective species numbers, yet the ability of Hill numbers to compare food biodiversity across contexts is unclear. Here we computed the between- and within-country variability of similarity-insensitive Hill numbers using dietary intake collected from prospective cohorts in nine European countries and cross-sectional studies in five low- and middle-income countries. We also assessed the relationships between more biodiverse diets, mortality rates and micronutrient adequacy. Only Hill0, better known as dietary species richness (DSR), showed strong heterogeneity between countries and individuals within countries. Higher DSR was most strongly associated with lower mortality rates in Europe as compared to Hill1, Hill2 and Hill∞, whereas relationships with micronutrient adequacy were comparable across Hill numbers in the global south. DSR can be used to assess progress towards more biodiverse diets, while also serving as a marker for the deleterious nutrition and health impacts associated with non-diverse diets.",

keywords = "nutrition",

author = "Hanley-Cook, {Giles T} and Jill Deygers and Daly, {Aisling J} and Jeroen Berden and Roseline Remans and Celine Termote and Ibsen, {Daniel B} and Julia Baudry and {Van Damme}, Patrick and Emmanuelle Kesse-Guyot and Paolo Vineis and Schulze, {Matthias B} and Hoang, {Ky The} and M{\'e}lanie Deschasaux-Tanguy and Alicia Heath and Dahm, {Christina C} and {van der Schouw}, {Yvonne T} and Guri Skeie and Marcela Guevara and Lorenzo Milani and Daniela Penafiel and Raneri, {Jessica E} and Oduor, {Francis Odhiambo} and Danny Hunter and Disna Ratnasekera and Murray, {Kris A} and Mathilde Touvier and Inge Huybrechts and Carl Lachat",

note = "{\textcopyright} 2025. The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature Limited.",

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Hanley-Cook, GT, Deygers, J, Daly, AJ, Berden, J, Remans, R, Termote, C, Ibsen, DB, Baudry, J, Van Damme, P, Kesse-Guyot, E, Vineis, P, Schulze, MB, Hoang, KT, Deschasaux-Tanguy, M, Heath, A, Dahm, CC, van der Schouw, YT, Skeie, G, Guevara, M, Milani, L, Penafiel, D, Raneri, JE, Oduor, FO, Hunter, D, Ratnasekera, D, Murray, KA, Touvier, M, Huybrechts, I & Lachat, C 2025, 'Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts', Nature Food. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

TY - JOUR

T1 - Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts

AU - Hanley-Cook, Giles T

AU - Deygers, Jill

AU - Daly, Aisling J

AU - Berden, Jeroen

AU - Remans, Roseline

AU - Termote, Celine

AU - Ibsen, Daniel B

AU - Baudry, Julia

AU - Van Damme, Patrick

AU - Kesse-Guyot, Emmanuelle

AU - Vineis, Paolo

AU - Schulze, Matthias B

AU - Hoang, Ky The

AU - Deschasaux-Tanguy, Mélanie

AU - Heath, Alicia

AU - Dahm, Christina C

AU - van der Schouw, Yvonne T

AU - Skeie, Guri

AU - Guevara, Marcela

AU - Milani, Lorenzo

AU - Penafiel, Daniela

AU - Raneri, Jessica E

AU - Oduor, Francis Odhiambo

AU - Hunter, Danny

AU - Ratnasekera, Disna

AU - Murray, Kris A

AU - Touvier, Mathilde

AU - Huybrechts, Inge

AU - Lachat, Carl

PY - 2025/3/24

Y1 - 2025/3/24

N2 - Ecological diversity indices such as Hill numbers have been developed to estimate effective species numbers, yet the ability of Hill numbers to compare food biodiversity across contexts is unclear. Here we computed the between- and within-country variability of similarity-insensitive Hill numbers using dietary intake collected from prospective cohorts in nine European countries and cross-sectional studies in five low- and middle-income countries. We also assessed the relationships between more biodiverse diets, mortality rates and micronutrient adequacy. Only Hill0, better known as dietary species richness (DSR), showed strong heterogeneity between countries and individuals within countries. Higher DSR was most strongly associated with lower mortality rates in Europe as compared to Hill1, Hill2 and Hill∞, whereas relationships with micronutrient adequacy were comparable across Hill numbers in the global south. DSR can be used to assess progress towards more biodiverse diets, while also serving as a marker for the deleterious nutrition and health impacts associated with non-diverse diets.

AB - Ecological diversity indices such as Hill numbers have been developed to estimate effective species numbers, yet the ability of Hill numbers to compare food biodiversity across contexts is unclear. Here we computed the between- and within-country variability of similarity-insensitive Hill numbers using dietary intake collected from prospective cohorts in nine European countries and cross-sectional studies in five low- and middle-income countries. We also assessed the relationships between more biodiverse diets, mortality rates and micronutrient adequacy. Only Hill0, better known as dietary species richness (DSR), showed strong heterogeneity between countries and individuals within countries. Higher DSR was most strongly associated with lower mortality rates in Europe as compared to Hill1, Hill2 and Hill∞, whereas relationships with micronutrient adequacy were comparable across Hill numbers in the global south. DSR can be used to assess progress towards more biodiverse diets, while also serving as a marker for the deleterious nutrition and health impacts associated with non-diverse diets.

KW - nutrition

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=105000788680&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

DO - 10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

M3 - Journal article

C2 - 40128333

SN - 2662-1355

JO - Nature Food

JF - Nature Food

M1 - e5656

ER -

Dietary species richness provides a comparable marker for better nutrition and health across contexts

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