After two years of research by a team of 37 scientists revealed a new diet could change the way the entire world eats!
Have you ever wondered where is the world heading? The population is on a rise and so is pollution, malnutrition is a major concern but so is overeating. The fuels are burning out, food stocks are wiping clean and the earth is supposedly reaching its critical stage!
I know that’s scary…
We have always anticipated the adverse effects of human actions to be a thing of the future. But scientists say that the future has arrived and we need to make amends with Mother Nature before it gets too late.
Dr. Richard Horton, editor-in-chief at The Lancet said “The stakes are very high; 1 billion people live in hunger and 2 billion people eat too much of the wrong foods.” There must be a way to stop the doomsday.
So, here is what scientists have come up with – a plan to save the earth, save lives and prevent a myriad of chronic and deadly diseases.
They have devised a flexitarian diet plan called the planetary diet that says that the Consumption of red meat and sugar needs to decrease by 50 percent, while the consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes must double. The good thing is you don’t have to completely give away your craving for meat and sweets but just make a few changes in the way you take it.
Binging on unhealthy diets have its own pack of effects leading to risk factors of many chronic or deadly diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and cancers which are now turning into epidemics, but that’s not it, they impact the environment too. This new diet has the potential to feed 10 billion people and save 11 million lives every year
It is a known fact that food systems are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions and they are the main user of fresh water, a leading driver of biodiversity loss, and land-use change, and cause dead zones in lakes and coastal areas. The Environmental Working Group (EWG) reported that red meat creates up to 40 times more greenhouse gas emissions than healthier alternatives, like vegetables and grains.
The planetary diet is a strategically formulated science-based diet designed to tackle problems of poor food eaten by billions of people as well as the global environmental catastrophe that’s ringing the doom. This planetary diet addresses the major role of farming – especially livestock – in driving climate change, the destruction of wildlife, and the pollution of rivers and oceans.
Guidelines for Healthy Planetary Diet
So, what does this diet allow?
The planetary health diet allows a calorie intake of 2,500 but it should mostly consist of veggies, fruit, whole grains, and plant-sourced protein (like legumes and nuts), with only small amounts of added sugar, starchy veggies, dairy, eggs, and animal-sourced protein.
Here is the chart
- Red meat: 14 g
- Chicken: 29 g
- Fish: 28 g
- Whole grains: 232 g
- Starchy vegetables: 50 g
- Dairy: 250 g
- Eggs: 13 g
- Vegetables: 300 g
- Fruits: 200 g
- Legumes: 75 g
- Sugar: 31 g
- Oils: 50 g
Conclusion
A diet rich in plant foods with sparse inclusion of poultry or meat products could prevent 11 million premature deaths each year and cut down greenhouse gas emissions by large!
