The ‘Planetary Health Diet’ and our Future

Food journalist Michael Pollan summarised his many books and research with seven words of advice regarding diet: “Eat food, mostly plants, not too much” (with ‘food’ being something your ancestors would recognise) This seems sensible advice and I always keep it in mind.

Recently I have noticed an upswing in people advocating a predominantly plant-based diet with several articles popping up like this in the Guardian:

There are science-based health benefits supporting this type of plant-based diet but there’s another important aspect to consider. Earth will have around 10 billion people by 2050 and the trouble is, there won’t be enough food to go round.

With this in mind the Lancet medical journal commissioned a three-year study to investigate a sustainable, healthy “planetary” diet, and it’s just been published.

The report was prepared by the non-profit organisation EAT who brought together 37 scientists over 3 years to produce the report. The actual peer-reviewed report in the lancet is a free download but a long, sprawling read. Fortunately EAT have produced a clear, readable guide to their findings that I hope finds a wide audience.

It’s simple and easy to follow – giving us informed direction on what we should be eating. I’ve linked the EAT’s PDF at the bottom, but in case you’re short on time here’s the main points:

There’s 1 Goal, 2 Targets, and 5 Strategies.

1 The Goal

The 2 Targets:

The 5 Strategies:

These recommendations may need future discussion and I’ve already seen push back from certain quarters but this conversation is one we need to be having now. It’s not just our own health and wellness at stake here, but the very future of the planet. Whatever diet we currently eat, we can all start to make small changes that will start moving us in the direction of a sustainable, prosperous future.

Download the brochure to have a look, by clicking HERE (go on, you know you want to!)