'Life Cycle Analyses Shows a Plant-Based Diet Is Most Nutritious
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SATURDAY, JANUARY 9, 2021 TIMES EVOKE NEW DELHI ‘Life cycle analyses shows a plant-based diet is most nutritious with least environmental impacts’ ood is among humanity’s greatest joys. From savouring special Walter C Willett is professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard University’s TH Chan School of Current Intakes vs Planetary Health Diet Fdelights to sharing food, how we eat Public Health and professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. Co-chair of the well-known 0 100% 200 300 400 500 600 700 800 symbolises our deepest bonds. However, Red meat worryingly, the way we now consume EAT-Lancet Commission, the eminent scholar spoke to Srijana Mitra Das at Times Evoke about why food could soon consume us — the world’s food, once richly biodiverse, is adopting a plant-based diet is so important for our own health — and the sustainability of our planet: Starchy veg now heavily composed of processed iStock animal products. Global meat production Why does the EAT-Lancet study argue that the con- has quadrupled since 1961, with over 340 sumption of meat is deeply harmful for the planet? DEGRADING: Industrial animal Eggs A CRITICAL million tonnes produced annually. With the world’s population heading towards ten farming has damaged Earth’s Greenhouse Gases Land use 1,200 2 6 Demand and supply feed each other. Over billion by 2050, the current consumption of meat environment and our own health (g CO2-eq/serving) (m /serving) BALANCE half the world’s land is used for agricul- — and the global trends towards even higher intakes Poultry Most nations ture, of which 77% is used to rear ani- — means destroying forests for pas- either overshoot or mals — one-third of Earth’s arable land tures and increasing the industrial underperform 4 is used only to grow feed to feed livestock. production of grains to feed animals. 800 Dairy foods on the Planetary Oils Fish Pork Eggs Dairy Fruits Such industrially-produced food is This is leading to greater greenhouse Sugar Cereals Red meat Red Health Diet. This Chicken damaging us, causing heart disease, gas emissions, pollution from fertilis- Vegetables has individual and diabetes, obesity and cancers world- ers and species extinctions. Also, Fish global effects wide. Alongside, it is wrecking the ruminants emit methane, which is a 400 2 Earth — livestock-based agriculture potent greenhouse gas, further inten- Global causes 14.5% of greenhouse gas sifying climate change. Thus, meat Vegetables East Asia Pacific emissions, driving climate change. products have the worst environmental impacts. South Asia Animal-based food production demands We have found that the direct consumption of 0 0 0% Sub-Saharan Africa Fruits Latin America & Caribbean deforestation — 70% of the amazingly wholegrains, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruits and Data courtesy: Walter Willett, EAT--Lancet Report (2019) biodiverse Amazon rainforest has been vegetables are nutritionally the most efficient and Middle East & North Africa destroyed to house animal ranches and these have the least environmental impacts. We IN BETTER TASTE: With less land and lower emissions, produce farming has smaller environmental impacts Europe & Central Asia grow livestock feed — while chemical have learned this from ‘life cycle analyses’ which Whole grains North America fertilisers are damaging water and soil. account for all the inputs and outputs in the produc- of their diets — this is strongly correlated with As the Earth is degraded, it will lose its tion of specific foods. Every individual must now sustainability because these diets are more plant- ability to produce the crops needed to make food choices that support their own health, based. The countries around the Mediterranean are based options. Today, people can also incorporate feed us. Our unthinking consumption their family’s health and that of our planet. We have among the best, especially Turkey and Israel, while healthy foods from around the world in their diets is over-sating us now — and leading to strong evidence that this can be achieved by countries in Southeast Asia, including Vietnam and — soy foods, for example, weren’t traditionally a part a future of deprivation. adopting largely plant-based diets, which draw Japan, also ranked high. of the Indian diet, but many soy-based dishes from Clearly, what harms nature harms us, on food traditions from around the world that That said, all countries have much room for im- across Asia provide flavourful and healthy options. and scientists have thus formulated the developed over thousands of years. provement as the best ranked about 65 on a scale planetary health diet — an endeavour of 100 — India scored about 50, its positive aspects What are your recommendations for developed which unites the well-being of the world How does adopting a plant-based diet help to Whole grainsStarchy veg provided by traditional wholegrains and legumes nations like the US, whose dietary preferences have and an individual’s health in something feed a growing global population? Dairy foods and relatively low amounts of red meat. impacted the global environment? Animal protein as simple as our daily bread. The diet It is much more efficient to eat plants directly Plant-sourced The US should be decreasing the consumption only requires lowering animal-based rather than feed them to animals and then eat With rising affluence though, both India and of red meat, refined starches, sugar, potatoes proteins consumption and increasing plant-based the animals. In our analyses, we found that for Unsaturated China are seeing significant dietary shifts. What and salt, and increasing the intakes of fruits, dietary options. A large-scale shift to this the global community, we could sustainably pro- plant oils are the implications of this? vegetables, wholegrains, legumes, nuts and fish. would mean vast tracts worldwide reduc- duce about two servings of animal-sourced foods Certainly, in many parts of India, healthy and Again, people with higher education and incomes ing emissions and toxins. Importantly, per day, one being dairy and the other being a flex- Sugars sustainable traditional diets are being displaced by are improving their diets — but those with lower such a diet could lead to twelve million ible combination of red meat (about once per week), more meat and refined starches and sugar. These incomes and education are not being able to do premature losses of life averted annu- poultry and fish (twice per week) and eggs. are part of heavily promoted industrial diets which this. Overall, rates of obesity, diabetes, cardio- ally — the difference that would make to If the amount of dairy or meat were to be have adverse effects on individual and planetary vascular disease and obesity-related cancers are us and our families is immeasurable. The increased much beyond these numbers, this would health. China’s red meat intake has now caught up going up — and life expectancy is going down. planetary health diet is a compelling simply not be environmentally sustainable — and with consumption levels in the US. Alongside envi- idea, and as two-thirds of Americans the ecological degradation involved would then ronmental impacts, such changes are fueling epi- Given the importance of a plant-based diet, should reduce their meat consumption now, one threaten global food production. PERFECTLY SERVED: The Planetary Health Diet demics of obesity and diabetes. We need to reverse governments intervene to popularise this? whose time has come. As Times Evoke’s recommends far more fresh and natural foods these trends for health and sustainability reasons. Worldwide, government policies, such as global experts emphasise, multiple Is a plant-based diet nutritionally adequate? China has officially adopted a policy to reduce subsidies, taxes, research and infrastructure partners, from the media to education- Almost all the nutrients in meat can be obtained cular disease — replacing red meat with plant the consumption of red meat as this can reverse the support, play a major role in determining the ists, governments to food industries, by eating nutrient-rich plants. An exception is protein reduces bad cholesterol. In long-term progress made in health and economics. Also, it isn’t foods we eat — unfortunately, these policies often can help this transition — but the change vitamin B-12 — if someone eats little or no meat studies, this predicts lower rates of heart disease. inevitable that red meat consumption must increase support diets that are neither healthy, nor starts with you. Join Times Evoke on a or dairy foods, taking a supplement is essential. with income — we see it declining in more educated sustainable. Each country should ensure the fascinating journey of food, whereby we Importantly though, meat, especially red meat, Which countries perform well in terms of a healthy groups in the US now as people learn about the production and consumption of healthy and can all turn over a vibrant new leaf. comes with saturated fat, cholesterol and other and sustainable diet? And where does India stand? benefits of plant-based diets. Almost all the recent sustainable diets for everyone — this is a matter constituents that increase the risk of cardiovas- We’ve ranked countries by the healthfulness growth in the food retail sector has been in plant- of justice and our collective future. The meat and dairy industry Agriculture causes 30% of greenhouse One and a half acres of 85% endangered wildlife species face Industrial agriculture drives 80% global deforestation. By use one-third of Earth’s freshwater gas emissions — livestock equals 14.5%. A land can produce 375 pounds habitat loss due to land turned to cash crops cutting down meat and dairy consumption, global farmland use — reducing the consumption of plant-based diet could reduce an individual’s of meat or 37,000 pounds of or cattle feed — from elephants to bees, one could be reduced by 75% — that’s equal to the US, China, EU and animal products by half would carbon footprint by 70% — if every American plant food — a meat eater thus million species now face such extinction Australia combined — and still feed the world.