We must change our diets to help heal the planet

The foods we eat and the way we produce them are important to the health of people and the planet, and we are really wrong.

Never before have so many people eaten so much. According to the World Health Organization, 1.9 billion adults were overweight worldwide, while 600 million people over 18 were clbadified as obese. In several countries, such as the United States, New Zealand, Mexico and Hungary, about one-third of adults are obese. Millions and millions of children are also overweight or obese.

Greedy diets are not unhealthy. Nor are they environmentally sustainable. As the world's population continues to grow and 10 billion people live on Earth by 2050, and more and more people get richer in developing countries, global food production will force more in addition to stress for nature. Factor in colossal amounts of food waste, and the situation is pretty dark.

"The food we eat and the way we produce it determines the health of people and the planet, and we make a serious mistake," says Professor Tim Lang, an expert at the City University of London, one of authors of a new article. published by The Lancet. A three-year project, led by a commission of 37 experts from 16 countries, whose skills range from health and nutrition to environmental sustainability and food systems, economics and political governance.

"We need a major overhaul, changing the global food system to an unprecedented scale, in a way that's right for each country," says Lang. "Although it is an unknown political territory and these problems are not easily solved, this goal is at hand and there are opportunities to adapt international, local and international policies. commercial. "

Scientists point out that many current food consumption patterns would be totally unsustainable if adopted globally. North Americans, for example, consume on average nearly 6.5 times the amount of red meat recommended.

In all the countries studied, people consume more starchy vegetables (potato and cbadava) than recommended. Their intake ranges from 1.5 times the recommended amount in South Asia to 7.5 times the recommended amount in sub-Saharan Africa.

Experts say radical changes in global diets will be needed in the coming years and decades. For example, they are calling for a 50% reduction in staple foods such as red meat and sugar by 2050, while arguing that the consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes should be doubled.

"The world's diets need to change dramatically. More than 800 million people lack food, while many others consume an unhealthy diet that contributes to premature death and disease, "said Dr. Walter Willett, of Harvard University, who worked on the recommendations. "To be healthy, diets must include adequate caloric intake and consist of a variety of plant-based foods, low amounts of food of animal origin, unsaturated rather than saturated fats and some refined grains, highly processed foods and added sugars. "

Changing dietary habits would be beneficial for both humans and the environment. Red meat production is a major contributor to greenhouse gas emissions in the form of methane and CO2, for example, a significant reduction in beef consumption would reduce both the risks to health and emissions. The greed of developed countries will not be sustainable on a large scale when 10 billion people will live on the planet.

"Humanity now represents a threat to the stability of the planet. The sustainability of the food system must therefore be defined from a global point of view, "says Professor Johan Rockström of the Stockholm Resilience Center in Sweden. "Our definition of sustainable food production requires that we do not use additional land, that we conserve existing biodiversity, that we use less water, that we manage water responsibly, that we significantly reduce pollution by nitrogen and phosphorus, that we did not emit any carbon dioxide emissions, "he explains.

"There is no magic bullet for combating harmful food production practices, but by defining and quantifying a safe operating space for food systems, it is possible to identify diets that will promote human health and promote environmental sustainability, "says Rockström.