What Can Dietary Patterns Tell Us about the Nutrition Transition and Environmental Sustainability of Diets in Uganda?

Uganda is undergoing dietary transition, with possible environmental sustainability and health implications, particularly for women. To explore evidence for dietary transitions and identify how environmentally sustainable women's dietary patterns are, principal component analysis was performed on dietary data collected using a 24 h recall during the Uganda Food Consumption Survey (n = 957). Four dietary patterns explained 23.6% of the variance. The traditional, high-fat, medium environmental impact pattern was characterized by high intakes of nuts/seeds, fats, oils and spreads, fish and boiled vegetables. High intakes of bread and buns, rice and pasta, tea and sugar characterized the transitioning, processed, low environmental impact' pattern. The plant-based, low environmental impact pattern was associated with high intakes of legumes, boiled roots/tubers, boiled traditional vegetables, fresh fruit and fried traditional cereals. High intakes of red/organ meats, chicken, and soups characterized the animal-based high environmental impact pattern. Urban residence was positively associated with transitioning, processed, low environmental impact ( = 1.19; 1.06, 1.32) and animal-based high environmental impact ( = 0.45; 0.28, 0.61) patterns; but negatively associated with the plant-based low environmental impact pattern (= -0.49; -0.62, -0.37). A traditional, high-fat dietary pattern with medium environmental impact persists in both contexts. These findings provide some evidence that urban women's diets are transitioning.