An international commission has recently released advice about how we need to shift our diet in order to tackle climate change and our over-population issues. It is the first diet plan to take both environmental issues and the overall health of the population into consideration. The advice is that we should turn to a more plant-based diet in order to reduce our need for land to farm livestock. It is believed that if this diet was adopted globally we could save 11 million deaths a year from unhealthy food whilst also helping to better support our natural world.

Less meat

Under the proposed diet, only one beef burger is allowed per week as well as two portions of fish. It is advised that the rest of our protein should come from sources such as pulses and nuts. The diet also allows for a glass of milk a day, as well as a small amount of cheese, and consumers are also allowed an egg or two a week. The diet does provide an average of 2500 calories a day, the amount most people are advised to consume, it's just that these calories will come from different sources than those eating an average diet are used to. Half of each plate under the planetary health diet, for instance, would be made up of fruit or vegetables whilst a third would consist of wholegrain cereals.

Eating for health and planet

The commission behind devising the diet claim that this is the healthiest diet available. They understand that it represents a radical change for many in developed societies, but for many poorer nations, this is the way that they eat already. The main benefit of the planetary health diet is the reduction it will bring in our need to farm livestock. This type of intensive farming can have catastrophic consequences for our planet, through deforestation or methane emissions.

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