How This Diet Will Benefit Both Your Health And The Planet
Even if you eat meat.
Most people aren’t aware that they can enjoy animal protein and still have a sustainable and healthy diet.
It’s not only possible but also recommended.
The planetary health diet was developed by leading scientists and nutritionists. They say a diet with fewer animal source foods and more plants benefits both people’s health and the environment.
You don’t have to cut meat and dairy products out of your life if you want to be sustainable. You just need to reduce the amount you eat.
By introducing the planetary health diet into your life, you won’t only become healthier but also more sustainable. Climate action starts with you.
Why is this important?
Our planet is on fire.
According to the latest IPCC report, countless impacts of climate change are already irreversible. 13,900 scientists are warning humanity of a climate emergency. There is a scientific consensus on this.
Climate-related disasters unprecedentedly skyrocketed in the last couple of years. There’s been flooding in South America and Southeast Asia. Heatwaves and wildfires in Australia and the Western United States. The hurricane season was devastating in the Atlantic, and cyclones have been record-shattering in Africa, South Asia, and the West Pacific.
We might have already reached a tipping point, which means the change is irreversible. We’re running out of time. The Amazon rainforest is emitting more CO2 than it absorbs. Floods and tornados are unexpectedly destroying Europe. Wildfires burn down the US.
It’s our responsibility to speak up and do our best. So that maybe decision-makers will realize and act.
Your actions don’t have to be perfect. You can still eat meat, travel by car, and fly around the world.
What’s necessary, though, is to acknowledge the crisis and take steps in those areas of your life where you can.
As food production contributes to around 37% of global greenhouse gas emissions, your plate is a perfect place to start.
Because you’re not only doing a favor to the planer, but also your health.
How to be healthy and sustainable in practice?
The planetary health diet became the global reference diet for adults.
In it, half of the plate consists of fruits and vegetables while the other half includes whole grains, plant proteins such as soy, beans, and lentils, unsaturated plant oils, modest amounts of meat and dairy, and some added sugars and starchy vegetables.
The principles of the diet:
- You can include meat, fish, and dairy almost daily
- You should significantly increase your fruit and vegetable intake
- Consume unsaturated rather than saturated fats
- Limit refined grains, highly processed foods, added sugars, and starchy vegetables.
- Strive for an optimal calorie intake (2500 kcal per day, but varies depending on age, gender, and activity levels)
The most convincing part is that the diet is flexible. You can adapt to your dietary needs, personal preferences, and cultural traditions.
If you’d like to be vegan or vegetarian, you can also adopt this diet. Yet, going plant-based remains a choice, not a must.
“Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts. Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes will have to double, and consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%.” — Prof. Walter Willett MD Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
If you’d like to follow the planetary health diet, here’s what you can eat daily:
Protein (daily amount/possible range)
- Nuts (50g/0–27g)
- Beans, chickpeas, lentils, etc. (75g/0–100g)
- Fish (28g/0–100g)
- Eggs (13g/0–25g)
- Red meat, i.e., beef, lamb, pork (14g/0–28g)
- Poultry (29g/0–58g)
- Dairy (250g/0–500g)
Carbohydrates (daily amount/possible range)
- Wholegrains, i.e., rice, wheat, oats (232g)
- Starchy vegetables, i.e., potatoes (50g/0–100g)
- Vegetables (300g, equivalent to 3–4 portions/200–600g)
- Fruit (200g, equivalent to 2.5 portions/100–300g)
- Added sugars (31g/0–31g)
Fats (daily amount/possible range)
- Unsaturated (40g/20–80g)
- Saturated (11.8g/0–11.8g)
“What this means in real terms is you might enjoy one beef burger and two servings of fish per week with the remainder of your protein derived from beans, pulses, and nuts. You may include a glass of milk or some cheese or butter each day and just under two eggs per week.” — Kerry Torrens, nutritionist
You’ll have to keep in mind that your body might need slightly more protein to avoid nutritional deficiencies. As an alternative, you can take supplements to increase your vitamin B12, retinol, vitamin D, and calcium intake.
Yet, it’s undoubted that the diet will help you stay healthy.
Multiple studies confirm that a mostly plant-based diet brings countless health benefits. It significantly reduces the risk of developing heart disease, cognitive decline, certain types of cancer, and Type 2 diabetes and reduces the symptoms of some chronic diseases. The diet can also help you lose weight.
Switching to the planetary health diet would highly benefit you, even if you don’t strictly stick to the reference values.
The change starts on your plate.
To win the fight against climate change, we don’t need a few hundred raw vegans who perfectly follow a plant-based diet and get angry with the world if the average person can’t do the same.
No.
We need people who care about the issue but don’t radically preach a diet that’s only plausible for a very few people. We need people who reduce their beef intake to only once per week. With time, maybe once every second week.
We need billions of imperfect solutions.
Would you like to be one of those people?
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