Introduction
Food choices influence both individual health and planetary sustainability. Contemporary dietary patterns contribute to rising obesity, diabetes, and diet-related cancers while exerting pressure on resources and the environment. Digital interventions—ranging from mobile apps and online programs to interactive platforms—offer scalable pathways to promote healthier, more sustainable eating behaviors. This article summarizes the aims, methods, and key findings typical of systematic reviews and meta-analyses in this growing field, highlighting what works, for whom, and under what conditions.
What are digital interventions for eating behavior?
Digital interventions encompass any technology-driven strategy intended to change eating behaviors. Common formats include mobile health apps that track intake and provide feedback, online tailored programs, social media campaigns, interactive websites, and text message reminders. Features such as goal setting, self-monitoring, personalized feedback, social support, gamification, and nudges can improve engagement and adherence. The potential advantages are clear: broad reach, low marginal cost, real-time feedback, and the ability to tailor content to individual needs and cultural contexts.
Healthy and sustainable eating: a dual aim
Healthy eating focuses on adequate intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, lean proteins, and limiting processed foods high in added sugars, salt, and unhealthy fats. Sustainable eating extends beyond individual health to include greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use, biodiversity, and waste reduction. Interventions that promote plant-forward diets, reduce red and processed meat, and encourage food waste prevention align personal health with planetary health. Digital tools are well-placed to deliver integrated messages that address both health and sustainability goals.
Design features associated with effectiveness
Evidence from syntheses often suggests several design elements that accompany meaningful outcomes. Personalization—advice and feedback tuned to a user’s characteristics and progress—tends to improve adherence. Self-monitoring increases awareness of intake patterns, while goal setting provides clear benchmarks. Reminders and prompts help sustain engagement, particularly when delivered with adaptive timing. Social support, whether online communities or peer comparisons, can motivate sustained behavior change. Importantly, the most successful interventions blend health-focused guidance with sustainability messaging and practical steps toward more sustainable choices.
What does the evidence say?
Systematic reviews and meta-analyses generally report modest to moderate improvements in dietary behavior with digital interventions. Average effect sizes vary by outcome, population, and intervention duration. Short-term gains in fruit and vegetable intake or reductions in sugary beverage consumption are common, while long-term maintenance remains challenging. When linked to sustainability outcomes, improvements in dietary patterns—such as higher plant-based food intake and reduced meat consumption—often accompany reductions in estimated dietary carbon footprints. Heterogeneity across studies highlights the influence of context, measurement methods, and engagement with the digital tools.
Who benefits most?
Effectiveness often improves among adults with higher baseline readiness to change, higher digital literacy, or greater access to smartphones and internet connectivity. Intervention reach is a critical consideration: scalable digital tools can reach underserved groups, but disparities in access must be addressed to avoid widening health inequities. Cultural tailoring and language accessibility also play pivotal roles in maximizing impact across diverse populations.
Implications for practice and policy
Policymakers and practitioners should consider integrating digital interventions into broader nutrition and sustainability agendas. Implementation strategies that emphasize user-centered design, privacy, and transparency about data use are essential. For health systems, digital tools can complement face-to-face counseling, support population health goals, and contribute to environmental targets by promoting sustainable dietary patterns. Ongoing evaluation, including randomized trials and real-world effectiveness studies, will refine best practices and identify which combinations of features yield the strongest outcomes.
Future directions
Next-generation interventions may harness artificial intelligence for more precise personalization, leverage intelligent nudges to sustain healthier choices, and integrate with food procurement systems to steer purchases toward sustainable options. Collaboration across nutrition science, behavioral psychology, data science, and environmental science will be crucial to optimize both health and planetary benefits while ensuring accessibility and equity.
