The future is flexitarian
The ‘Planetary Health Diet’ may be the answer to feeding everyone on earth while simultaneously averting environmental catastrophe, but could it really work? “It’s no secret that poor nutritional habits and sedentary lifestyles are having a detrimental effect on not only our health, but also our planet,” says Ben Coleman, nutritionist and personal trainer (colemanpersonaltraining.co.uk). “In an ideal world, we’d all adopt this new way of eating to better mankind.
However, adapting behaviours overnight from consuming the mass produced, nutrient-deficient fast food that we eat is much harder than you think. In my experience, implementing small changes over a longer period of time is the most effective and sustainable route to success.” The inherently flexible nature of this diet is what makes it something that seems so attainable for us as a society. It’s been suggested that decreasing your red meat intake to the odd burger once every seven or so days, or a big steak per month, is a far healthier way to enjoy these foods. It’s widely accepted that a couple of portions of chicken or fish a week is sustainable, but it would be better for our bodies if a lot of our protein came from nuts and legumes rather than animal-based sources. Despite our ongoing love-affair with the starchiest of vegetables, we should be cutting down on those in favour of less carb-heavy options, which should make up at least half of our plates of food (on most occasions). These changes aren’t hard to implement and they’re certainly not rocket science, but it’s vital that we keep them up as much as possible for the good of the soon-to-be 10 billion of us gracing this beautiful but intensely stretched planet.
