Balancing Health, Sustainability, and Culture: A Review of Linear Programming Approaches to Diet Optimization

A healthy diet is essential for combating malnutrition and managing non-communicable diseases (NCDs), yet modern dietary patterns often contribute to environmental degradation. Globalized food systems tend to promote energy-dense, nutritionally poor diets while overlooking environmental concerns such as greenhouse gas emissions (GHGEs), water usage, and land use. Linear Programming (LP) offers a promising approach to diet optimization by balancing nutritional adequacy, cost-effectiveness, sustainability, and cultural acceptability. This review investigates the application of LP in designing sustainable and culturally appropriate diets. A systematic literature search following PRISMA guidelines was conducted using ScienceDirect and Scopus, targeting peer-reviewed articles published between 2010 and 2024. A total of 39 studies were included from an initial pool of 224 results. Common objectives included minimizing cost and GHGEs while enhancing environmental sustainability and promoting plant-based diets. Several studies also aimed to maintain cultural acceptability by minimizing deviations from existing dietary patterns. In addition, a scientometric analysis was performed to examine publication trends, leading journals, influential authors, citation patterns, and geographical distribution of research. This analysis provides insights into the evolution of the field and highlights region-specific contributions to the development of sustainable diet optimization models. Overall, the findings underscore LP’s potential to support dietary strategies that integrate health, affordability, environmental sustainability, and cultural relevance.