Planetary Health Diet — Yes, You Can Eat Meat!
Channel: Daily Insight
Date: 20/01/2019

A group of 37 scientists have been brought together as part of the EAT-Lancet Commission to construct the ultimate diet to feed the growing human population. The current world’s population is around 7.7 billion people and that’s expected to reach about 10 billion by 2050. Our current diets of lots of red meat and dairy are apparently unsustainable.

But never fear meat-eaters! The Planetary Health Diet allows the occasional consumption of meat and dairy. The pool of scientists brought together were from a mix of scientific backgrounds including nutrition, farming, and climate change. Together they came up with a list of foods that have the least impact on the environment, but provide adequate nutrition.

In terms of protein, the best foods to consume include nuts, beans, chickpeas, lentils, fish (well, only about 28g a day on average), about one egg a week, 14g of red meat a day (so like half a slice of ham), and about 29g of chicken. Apparently you can have up to 250g of dairy a day — the equivalent of one glass of milk, or about 50g of cheese. In terms of carbs, you can munch down about 232g of wholegrain foods like bread and rice (the equivalent of about 7 slices of bread). You can also eat 50g of starchy vegetables (so like, half a potato). The diet also recommends that you eat 300g of vegetables, and 200g of fruit. Sugar should be limited to 31g a day, and oils such as olive oil should be limited to 50g.

So overall, the diet doesn’t look too bad. If you love eating huge amounts of beef, lamb, and farmed prawns, then you’re out of luck I guess. But it turns out beef and lamb consumption in Australia are actually declining year-on-year — beef quite dramatically. Australians are actually consuming much more chicken and pork than they used to, and are almost not consuming mutton anymore.

So what will governments do in order to encourage us to change our habits? Well, the researchers said that a tax on meat will probably be necessary in order to actually bring about any meaningful change. People tend to buy things less when they become expensive (See smoking in Australia — the average packet of cigarettes costs about $25 or $30 now). Obviously education campaigns will be required to teach our kids which foods are good and which foods are bad for the environment.

I know some of my vegan listeners will be saying, “Well, why not just promote a vegan diet?”. Well you’re right in that a vegan diet is one of the best diets for the planet, but unfortunately, most meat-eaters find it bland and not very satisfying. It’s not very realistic to expect ardent meat-eaters to switch to tofu burgers and lentil soup. So having a little bit of meat included in the diet is probably a necessity.

One benefit, or disadvantage depending how you look at it, is that the Planetary Health Diet will actually prevent about 11 million people from dying each year. This is largely due to reducing the number of people dying from diseases related to unhealthy diets such as strokes, heart attacks, and some cancers. By creating a diet to feed a large world population, we are actually going to increase the world’s population by making people live longer — a little bit ironic, perhaps.

So what’s your thoughts on the Planetary Health Diet? Are you going to voluntarily cut back your meat and dairy consumption and increase your nut and legume consumption? Or has all this talk about lamb and beef increased your appetite even more and soon your planning to head down to the local burger joint and buy yourself a works burger with the lot? Probably the picture that I’ve shown you throughout this video hasn’t helped much.

So anyway, diet is important. It’s not only important for your health — it’s becoming increasingly important for the planet. Tofu? Legumes? Nuts? Eat up my friends!

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IMAGES
Aussie Burger with the lot
By Manuela Zangara
https://www.manusmenu.com/aussie-burger-with-the-lot
How Proteins Compare Chart
By the British Broadcasting Corporation , A bit of meat, a lot of veg - the flexitarian diet to feed 10bn
https://www.bbc.com/news/health-46865204

SOURCES
EAT-Lancet Commission
https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/
Three charts on: Australia’s declining taste for beef and growing appetite for chicken
http://theconversation.com/three-charts-on-australias-declining-taste-for-beef-and-growing-appetite-for-chicken-78100

#dailyrantaustralia #healthtips #vegan