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 Milani

Daniela 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 › Article › Academic › 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	doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6
Pages (from-to)	577-586
Number of pages	10
Journal	Nature Food
Volume	6
Issue number	6
Early online date	24 Mar 2025
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6
Publication status	Published - Jun 2025

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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, 6(6), 577-586. Article doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

@article{fd9f87d69904481987713974bc2cba78,

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.",

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

year = "2025",

month = jun,

doi = "10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6",

language = "English",

volume = "6",

pages = "577--586",

journal = "Nature Food",

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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, vol. 6, no. 6, doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6, pp. 577-586. https://doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

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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 - 2025/6

Y1 - 2025/6

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.

UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105000788680

U2 - 10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

DO - 10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

M3 - Article

C2 - 40128333

VL - 6

SP - 577

EP - 586

JO - Nature Food

JF - Nature Food

IS - 6

M1 - doi.org/10.1038/s43016-025-01147-6

ER -

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

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