How should you eat in 2024?

Do you sometimes feel anxious about food? Is your relationship with food strict? Is your goal to lose weight? Here are some simple guidelines to follow to make it sustainable for you and the environment.

Nutrition, eating habits, and our emotions around food are an intriguing world. I'm creating a resource for my coaching clients around nutrition so I wanted to dive deeper into the topic.

We have nutrition guidelines and recommendations on what kind of food we should consume but the reality is more complex. How we eat is affected by several different determinants and that is why changing your eating behaviour can be complex as well. The determinants can be divided into biological, economic, physical, social, psychological and attitudinal (Social, behavioural and other determinants of the choice of diet | Health Knowledge, no date)

This piece introduces the planetary diet and the next one examines how to balance your efforts in your daily life.

What is the Planetary Diet?

In 2019, a team of researchers published a proposal for a planetary health diet in The Lancet, a world-leading international general medical journal. The planetary diet would ensure sufficient access to food for the world's population and prevent deaths caused by poor diets, promoting sustainable development and mitigating climate change. (Planetary Health Diet Goes Beyond Finnish Nutrition Recommendations | University of Eastern Finland, 2020)

The diet is flexible as it provides guidelines to ranges of different food groups. The food groups make up an optimal diet for health and environmental sustainability. The diet highlights a plant-forward diet where whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes comprise a greater proportion. Meat and dairy are part of the diet but in significantly smaller portions than the aforementioned foods. (The Planetary Health Diet, no date)

Professor Marjukka Kolehmainen from the Institute of Public Health and Clinical Nutrition at the University of Eastern Finland brings up that for many Finns, going from the current recommendations to the planetary health diet would be too drastic.?

“Our current intake of protein, for example, is too high, but if people are to reduce their consumption of animal-based products this drastically, they need to have information about how to replace them. In addition, tasty and healthy meat substitutes must be easily available to consumers.” (Planetary Health Diet Goes Beyond Finnish Nutrition Recommendations | University of Eastern Finland, 2020)

We have some distance to cover in changing our ways but I believe as individuals we can create an impact. According to Statistics Finland, in 2000, Finns consumed 19 kg per person of red meat and in 2023 it was 17 kg. On the other hand, the consumption of poultry has over doubled from 13,3 kg to 29,9 kg per person. (Tilastokeskus, no date)

"How does this affect me?"

I use the plate model above as a guideline for my food choices and encourage clients to use it as well. I admit to eating more animal-based products than the model proposes but I'm working on it.

The plate model is one of the easiest ways to visualize what your day-to-day choices should look like. In my experience, most people don't consume enough fruits and vegetables. By filling half your plate with vegetables, you're probably covered with everything else as well.

Adding a quarter of your plate as a protein source and topping it off with a carbohydrate source like whole grains. You'll also get a bunch of fibre from whole grains. Fibre intake is associated with your metabolic health (risk of type 2 diabetes), cardiovascular diseases, gut health and risk of cancer. (Barber et al., 2020)

What about ice cream and other treats?

I love ice cream and I would never recommend you to give up your treats. Restrictive diets often backfire and create an unhealthy relationship with food. If your goal is to lose weight, I suggest being mindful of your portion sizes and focusing on enjoying the smaller quantities.

Even when I'm working on losing some weight (doesn't happen very often), I have some ice cream or chocolate almost daily. It gives me a lot of joy so I almost consider the small amount to be part of a healthy diet.

What's next?

The next piece will be about how to balance your nutrition in your day-to-day and why trying to make it "100 % perfect" doesn't make sense.

If you want to discuss your nutrition, book a slot below and I'm happy to find a way to help.

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References

Social, behavioural and other determinants of the choice of diet | Health Knowledge. (ei pvm.). Noudettu 3. hein?kuuta 2024, osoitteesta https://www.healthknowledge.org.uk/public-health-textbook/disease-causation-diagnostic/2e-health-social-behaviour/social-behavioural-determinants

Planetary health diet goes beyond Finnish nutrition recommendations | University of Eastern Finland. (2020, lokakuuta 29). https://www.uef.fi/en/article/planetary-health-diet-goes-beyond-finnish-nutrition-recommendations

The Planetary Health Diet. (ei pvm.). EAT. Noudettu 3. hein?kuuta 2024, osoitteesta https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/the-planetary-health-diet-and-you/

Tilastokeskus. (ei pvm.). Statistics Finland. Statistics Finland. Noudettu 3. hein?kuuta 2024, osoitteesta https://stat.fi/tup/suoluk/suoluk_hinnat_en.html

Barber, T. M., Kabisch, S., Pfeiffer, A. F. H., & Weickert, M. O. (2020). The Health Benefits of Dietary Fibre. Nutrients, 12(10), Article 10. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12103209