Emmanuel Cohen ^*

• Eco-anthropology (EA UMR 7206), CNRS, National Museum of Natural History, Paris, France

The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are the cornerstone of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. The challenges associated with nutrition have a significant place within this agenda. Indeed, the rising prevalence of cardiometabolic diseases since the last decades constitutes the main concern for public health worldwide that can impact lastingly the development of urbanised societies (Popkin and Ng, 2021). Moreover, the necessity to develop sustainable and resilient agro-food systems to protect environment has become a priority in all international policies (Michel-Villarreal et al, 2019). Accordingly, in a globalised world experiencing an overall urban transition, the Nutrition and Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 10: Reduced Inequalities, aims to provide new insights, theoretically and empirically, on nutrition-related issues situated at the crossroad of health and environmental dimensions, to identify at-risk subgroups in variable socio-ecological contexts and suggest alternatives to improve both human and environmental health.Based on 14 relevant contributions, from an articulation between 10 original case studies conducted worldwide, 1 clinical trial, 2 literature reviews and 1 brief research report, the SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities provided relevant outcomes as well as critical analyses and interpretations to illustrate challenges and initiatives around nutrition-related health and environmental issues. Through contributions focusing on determinants of nutritional health, but also on agro-food system issues and orientations, at both national and regional scales, the SDG 10: Reduced Inequalities allows an original overview of factors leading to at-risk dietary patterns and potential socio-political strategies to address at mid-or long-term perspectives such public health issues. This Research Topic has a specific focus on Low-and Middle-income Countries where the urbanization rates are the highest (Kundu and Pandey, 2020), as the incidence of obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases (NCD-RisC, 2021), while the sustainability of agro-food systems becomes a social priority with a rising soil deterioration (Hossain et al, 2020).Hence, two first contributions, from Shifera et al. and Mengstie et al., focused on the determinants of malnutrition in Ethiopia. These works showed that rural and socially excluded populations were more exposed to undernutrition, for both children and mothers. Such trends are in accordance with the literature highlighting that countries situated at early stages of the urban transition present persisting high rates stunting, wasting and underweight. In continuity of these works, two contributions in Iran, from Ebrahimi et al. and Roustaee et al., showed that along the urbanization process, the consumption of processed energy-dense food increase in multiple age groups, with a higher risk for obesity-related cardiometabolic diseases. Such a comparative framework sheds light on how countries situated at more advanced stages of urban transition, as Iran, are more exposed to new forms of malnutrition as overnutrition, compared to countries which still maintain a pre-industrial lifestyle in some spaces, as Ethiopia or Bangladesh where another relevant contribution was realised by Islam et al. Then, Mhamad et al. in Iraq show that the prevalence of stunting among preschool children is relatively low in some urban settings of the country. The SDG 10 also benefits from a scoping review conducted by John et al. in Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa, which highlights the evidence of an ongoing double burden of malnutrition among under-five children, between a persisting undernutrition favouring wasting/stunting and a rising overnutrition favouring overweight/obesity. In the meanwhile, in a high income country such as China, Jiang et al. describes how the social isolation of elders decreases health-related quality of life.The SDG 10 present several contributions on socio-political strategies to improve nutritional health, especially in urbanised areas, with potential positive fallouts on environmental health. Hence, beside the previous contribution in Nigeria from John et al. recommending interventions on health policies at all levels: individual, household, regional and national, Stadimayr et al. conducted a scoping review in sub-Saharan Africa highlighting the necessity to improve the food environment to favour a higher access to fruits and vegetables, through food safety, sustainable local productions, lower prices and food diversity. Another contribution, made by Hudson et al. as a brief report, shows that school gardening, nutrition education, and cooking program delivered to elementary children may positively influence the home food environment in Austin area, Texas (USA). In continuity of these works, Liu et al. in rural China argues on the positive role of self-efficacy in the relationship between age, social isolation and poorer nutritional literacy associated with a higher number of chronic diseases. Then, in the suburban area of Berlin in Germany, a contribution conducted by Darkhani underlines the positive role of women in the development of alternative food networks to favour ecologically sustainable modes of production, certified food quality, food safety consciousness, and health and nutrition concerns. In addition, Brukalo et al. highlights how public procurement of fatty products for Polish educational units can be improved to promote children health. Hence, standardized guidelines are required to promote healthier food choices, encourage sustainable diets, and ultimately enhance the overall health and wellbeing of children. Finally, in the context of the current ecological crisis, especially through increasing natural disasters in Indonesia, a clinical trial conducted by Fatmah Fatmah demonstrates that Api-api mangrove, an abundant plant species in coastal spaces of the country, consumed as sword bean snack bars constitutes a viable and efficient substitute for emergency food provisions, particularly in disaster-stricken communities.Accordingly, based on these fruitful contributions, the SGD 10 provides new insights to identify at-risk subgroups for nutrition-related diseases along the urban transition worldwide. Underfive children, elders and also socially excluded populations are as much subgroups overexposed to whether stunting, wasting or overweight, according to the current urban transition stage of their respective countries. This Research Topic presents innovatively a clear overview of the ongoing nutritional transition associated with the globalized urbanization process. Moreover, the SDG 10 describes worldwide multiple local, national and regional alternatives to address public health nutrition issues stemming from this urban transition. Alternatives food networks, as innovative agro-food systems, where women can have a major role in Germany; school gardening and nutrition education in Texas (USA); or multilevel food intervention programs based on sustainable local productions, food safety and food diversity in Nigeria, constitute a small sample from this large landscape of adaptive strategies to allow healthy population and individual trajectories in increasing urban areas worldwide.