Planetary Health Diet — Not another fad but our responsibility.

It is nothing less than a deep convoluted rabbit hole with a lot of detours and forks….I am talking about the topic of healthy food and healthy earth, the problems facing us and probable solutions to set the record straight for the future. However it is also very conveniently designed by nature that if you turn one knob the right way the rest of the cogs arrange themselves the right way too to unlock the best potential this planet has to offer us and everyone/everything else to whom it belongs. There is so much to talk about this topic so I picked one today.

One such perspective is EAT-LANCET commission report?(1)?which focuses on 1 goal — 2 Targets — 5 strategies to get there by 2050. It considers 2 intricately related parameters:?Human Diet?and?Environmental Health,?both being vastly impacted by food production, processing, distribution and consumption. More or less 2 birds with one stone as in get one thing right and the other will rearrange accordingly to support it.

Key Takeaways:

• Transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts.
• Global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes will have to double
• Consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar will have to be reduced by more than 50%
• A diet rich in plant-based foods and with fewer animal source foods confers both improved health and environmental benefits

So what now?

The obesity crisis and chronic health disease alarming rise have been extensively quoted and there is no disagreement there.

Similarly environment degradation and breach of safe limits on planetary boundaries are not new news either.?(2)

Planetary health situation taken from the reference 2 below

Collectively we can do many things about it...

A. Action is needed NOW to have the future as envisioned by Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) set by United Nations by at least 2050?(3).?This is another interesting report to read that touches multidimensional aspects of sustainability, health, equity and growth across 17 goals.

B. Shifting to a predominantly plant based diet with minimal animal sourced foods and products requires changes at so many levels and mobilization to move away from an added sugar-ridden and meat heavy food industry. We are barely at the awareness phase, if that. This is going to be a radical shift in the way we think, our choices, food and health policies and food industry goals.

Food for thought: How does your last meal compare in proportions to the below plate ?

Taken from the EAT-LANCET report on guidance for a Planetary health diet reference 1

C. We have impacted biodiversity including that of our microbiome of soil and our gut that they are not able to support all the disproportionate foods being added to our agricultural lands and plates. Restoration of this will require reversal and rebuilding of the resources and let life thrive on this planet like it is supposed to. It is all interconnected in ways we are mostly unaware of.

D. It is an irony that Malnutrition and Over-consumption with chronic illness rise are the 2 sides of the coin we are dealing with. The increased burden of over production of food which is firstly not reaching the entire population, secondly not offering nutrition value to those who consume and thirdly results in excess waste at production as well as consumption ends. It is a lose-lose situation for everyone . A win-win would be what this report proposes as Planetary health diet for everyone by 2050!

Definition: Planetary health diet refers to the critical role diets play in linking human health and environmental sustainability; 2 agendas which need to be tackled together and not in silos. This should be the goal of Food System transformation approach.

A summary of the report is depicted below.

An illustration by the author to summarize EAT-LANCET commission report key takeaways

Parting thought

I always believe awareness is the first step for anything. If you don’t know, you cannot act on it. I hope we all take a good look at what is going on in our household and around us to find opportunities to impact this goal in a positive way by doing our part — small or big!

PS: When it comes to a healthy plant diet source, there is some bad reputation for what is widely considered “Whole food goodness”! Whole grain (corn, wheat, oats), legumes(soy, bean) and some vegetables (night shade) are all stirring up the controversial pot of lectins (think gluten but a lot more beyond) and how our over dependency on them as source of carbs and protein has a major role in inflammation and the downhill from there with obesity, diabetes, muscle loss and all the metabolic illness. I will circle back with some more information on this from the book ‘The Plant Paradox’ (4). Meanwhile enjoying any food already on your diet in moderation is a safer bet :)

References:

(1) https://eatforum.org/content/uploads/2019/07/EAT-Lancet_Commission_Summary_Report.pdf

(2) https://www.stockholmresilience.org/research/research-news/2015-01-15-planetary-boundaries---an-update.html

(3)?https://unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2021/The-Sustainable-Development-Goals-Report-2021.pdf

(4)?https://www.amazon.com/Plant-Paradox-Dangers-Healthy-Disease/dp/006242713X