Celebration of the School of MPO PhD Success

PhD Graduate

Email: d20128528@mytudublin.ie

Title: “Health and Environmental Impact of Diets in the Republic of Ireland”

Summary: The overarching aim of the PhD was to identify and quantify the health and environmental impacts of current diets in Ireland with the objective to make key recommendations to encourage consumers to adopt healthier and more environmentally sustainable diets and to enable integrated policy decision-making pertaining to resource allocation within the health and environment sector. The PhD employed statistical methods to identify five unique dietary patterns and three food consumption patterns in Ireland using data from a food consumption survey. Additionally, the project assessed the health impacts and quantified the environmental impact of the identified diets through life cycle assessment. Results indicated that the identified ‘vegetable-focused’ dietary pattern can be adapted to meet Ireland’s specific cultural and climatic needs and can be promoted as the "New Irish" Diet (Aiste Bia Nua-Éireann). The research further informs evidence-based policies for food sector management to improve health outcomes and promote sustainable food systems.

Peer-reviewed publications:

Burke, D. T., P. Hynds & A. Priyadarshini (2025) Evaluating the GHG emissions, land use, and water use associated with contemporary dietary patterns in the Republic of Ireland. Environmental Research, 270, 120974.

Burke, D. T., M. Boudou, J. McCarthy, M. Bahramian, C. Krah, C. Kenny, P. Hynds & A. Priyadarshini (2024), Identification and profiling of socioeconomic and health characteristics associated with consumer food purchasing behaviours using machine learning. Food Quality and Preference, 105417.

Burke, D. T., A. E. Bennett, P. Hynds & A. Priyadarshini (2023), Identifying Novel Data-Driven Dietary Patterns via Dimensionality Reduction and Associations with Socioeconomic Profile and Health Outcomes in Ireland. Nutrients, 15.

Burke, D. T., P. Hynds & A. Priyadarshini (2023) Quantifying farm-to-fork greenhouse gas emissions for five dietary patterns across Europe and North America: A pooled analysis from 2009 to 2020. Resources, Environment and Sustainability, 12, 100108.

Conference Publications:

Burke, D. T., P. Hynds & A. Priyadarshini (2023) Development of novel data-driven Irish diets and associations with socio-economic profiles and health. European Journal of Public Health, 33, ckad160.460.

Krah, C., M. Bahramian, D. T. Burke, P. Hynds & A. Priyadarshini (2023) Quantifying Metabolic Food Waste in Ireland from Excess Food Intake. European Journal of Public Health, 33, ckad160.584.

Events:

• Presenter at the 16th European Public Health Conference (Nov. 2023)
• Presenter and organiser of CircBioCityWaste Conference (Nov. 2023)
• Presenter at SPHeRE (Structured Population Health, Policy and Health-services Research Education) Conference (Apr. 2023)
• Presentation at the Irish Environmental Researchers Colloquium (Apr. 2023, June 2022, June 2021)