From Planetary Diets to Personalised Nutrition

ECH Editorial Team: From your perspective as a researcher in plant physiology and functional ecology, how important is the EAT-Lancet Report for understanding how food systems can be made both healthier and more sustainable?

Wolfram Weckwerth: From a plant physiology and functional ecology perspective, the EAT-Lancet Report is a highly influential reference. It brings together dietary patterns, planetary boundaries, and food system transformation within a single, quantitative framework. Crucially, it shows that predominantly plant-based diets can simultaneously promote human health and remain compatible with ecological limits. This concept of a “safe operating space” is essential for aligning biological, environmental, and nutritional goals.

ECH Editorial Team: The report advocates a stronger shift towards plant-based diets. From a biological point of view, what key conditions must be met for plants to reliably support such a transformation of global food systems?

Wolfram Weckwerth: For plant-based diets to reliably support a global transformation of food systems, several biological conditions must be fulfilled. Crops need to deliver stable yields under increasingly variable climates, which requires improved stress tolerance and efficient use of water and nutrients. At the same time, plant foods must provide sufficient nutritional density and bioavailability. Diversity across plant species and functional types is equally important to ensure resilience and meet nutritional needs.

ECH Editorial Team: How important are plant diversity and functional traits for maintaining stable and productive food systems, particularly under the pressures of climate change?

Wolfram Weckwerth: Plant diversity - both in terms of species and functional traits- is fundamental to stable and productive food systems, particularly under climate change. Different plants respond differently to stress, resource availability, and pests. This diversity creates a form of biological insurance that stabilises yields and ecosystem functions. Diversified cropping systems are therefore more resilient and also support a richer biochemical basis for human nutrition.

ECH Editorial Team: Where do you see key trade-offs between plant productivity, nutritional quality, and ecological sustainability in the EAT-Lancet Report?

Wolfram Weckwerth: Important trade-offs remain only partly addressed. High-yield crops may deliver calories efficiently but often at the expense of micronutrient density or biochemical diversity. Intensification can increase productivity while placing pressure on water, nutrient cycles, soil health and biodiversity. Expanding plant-based production also risks reinforcing monocultures if not carefully managed. The report defines environmental boundaries, but biological trade-offs within crops require deeper attention.

ECH Editorial Team: You and an interdisciplinary team of colleagues at the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna have launched a new research platform called AIPN (AI-powered Personalized Nutrition), which takes up and further develops the findings of the EAT-Lancet Report. Could you tell us more about it?

Wolfram Weckwerth: AIPN - AI-powered Personalized Nutrition for well-being and disease prevention - is a newly established interdisciplinary research platform at the University of Vienna which I coordinate. We are a team of scientists from the University of Vienna and the Medical University of Vienna. Its central idea is that sustainable diets must work not only at a global level, as outlined in the EAT-Lancet Report, but also at the level of individual biology and behaviour.

AIPN brings together food production and nutrition, medicine, metabolomics, microbiome research, psychology, and artificial intelligence to understand how diet composition interacts with human metabolism, gut microbes, disease prevention and mental well-being. Using biochemical profiling and AI-based modelling, our interdisciplinary research network seeks to identify personalised, plant-forward dietary strategies that promote health while remaining compatible with planetary boundaries.

In this sense, the EAT-Lancet Report provides the global framework for AIPN: it defines the ecological limits within which food systems must operate. AIPN translates these boundary conditions into actionable insights for real people, helping to align individual health optimisation with broader societal and environmental sustainability. And last but not least: we not only optimise individual health, but also do so in a scientifically defined planetary context.