The Planetary Health Diet is a recently coined term for a diet that emphasizes minimally processed plant foods but allows limited intake of meat and dairy products. The diet was created by the EAT-Lancet Commission as part of a landmark report released in The Lancet on January 16, 2019. According to the EAT-Lancet Commission, this diet is healthy for both people and the planet. A new study led by the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health is the first large study to directly evaluate the effects of following the recommendations in the EAT-Lancet report. The study was published on June 10 in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Let’s learn more about the Planetary Health Diet and how following it may benefit your health.
Foods that can be eaten in a planetary health diet
The Planetary Health Diet emphasizes a plant-based diet. Most of the foods consumed in this diet are:
- Whole grains
- Fruit
- vegetables
- crazy
- Legumes
- Meat and dairy products are also an important part of the diet, but in much smaller proportions.
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Dietary goals also state that the average adult needs 2500 kcal per day. This will vary depending on age, gender, activity level and health profile.
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How the Planetary Health Diet is good for your health
To study the effects of this diet, Harvard researchers used health data from more than 200,000 women and men enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study. “Participants had no major chronic diseases at the start of the study. They completed dietary questionnaires every four years for up to 34 years. Participants’ diets were scored based on intake of 15 food groups — including whole grains, vegetables, poultry and nuts — to measure adherence to the Planetary Health Diet.”
The study findings showed that the top 10% of participants with the highest adherence to the Planetary Health Diet had a 30% lower risk of premature death than the lowest 10%. The researchers found that “the risk of every major cause of death, including cancer, heart disease, and lung disease, was lower with greater adherence to this dietary pattern.”
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How this diet is good for the planet
The researchers also found that those who followed the Planetary Health Diet the most had a significantly lower environmental impact than those who followed it the least, with 29% fewer greenhouse gas emissions, 21% less fertilizer needed, and 51% less cropland used.
“Climate change is leading our planet toward ecological disaster, and our food system plays a major role in this,” said corresponding author Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition. “By changing what we eat, we can slow the process of climate change. And what’s healthiest for the planet is also healthiest for humans.”
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