Are you interested in reducing your environmental footprint? Or do you want to connect with your local ecosystem through the foods you eat? If so, then you surely want to know about sustainable diets.
Even though there are tons of discussions when it comes to food, there isn’t a lot of discussion of what this concept means. What people see sustainable diet as are plant-based or entirely organic. But the thing is, sustainability is a lot more complex.
Our diet has a major impact on the environment and this planet. From overfishing to rainforests being plowed up for soy plantations, our day-to-day diet can have some big consequences on our environment.
Sustainable eating involves choosing foods that are good for both your health and the environment. This involves consuming more plant-based foods, reducing waste, and supporting responsibly sourced ingredients. With this approach, we conserve natural resources, reduce the rate at which food production causes pollution, and protect biodiversity.
When it comes to sustainable eating, there are no strict rules to follow. Sustainable eating allows flexibility and personalization when it comes to what to eat.
For example, a sustainable farm provides nutritious fruits and vegetables that are good for our health and at the same time support nature by avoiding making use of pesticides and fertilizers that are harmful to wildlife or plants.
The farm also may rotate crops to maintain the health of the soil, and this makes the farmland usable for future generations. So basically, what it means is that a sustainable diet supports both humans and nature.
Keeping the environment safe in the long term is very essential as it also supports humans. A healthy environment is essential for our survival, so a sustainable diet should do the same for us. With a sustainable diet, we:
On a personal level, what this means is making some changes like eating less meat, and choosing produce grown without harmful fertilizers and pesticides.
On a much larger scale, this means investing in agricultural systems that renew rather than deplete the ecosystems to which they belong.
The answer is yes, essentially. According to a study by Oxford University, it was discovered that vegan diets massively reduce our impact on the environment. They produce 60–75% fewer greenhouse gases, require less land, and cause less water pollution compared to a meat-based diet. Also, the destruction of wildlife is reduced by 66 percent and water use by 54 percent.
The thing is, going vegan isn’t perfect for our health. Plant-based milk does contain lower carbon emissions and makes use of less land compared to dairy milk, but they are very ‘thirsty’ product that needs lots of water. Vegans are usually accused of contributing to deforestation, too, as forests are razed in other to make way for soy crops. However, only 6% of the soy produced is consumed by people; the remaining 81% is used to feed animals like pigs, chickens, and cows.
According to reports, if everyone adopted a vegan diet, food-related CO2 emissions would be reduced by 68% in 15 years, allowing us to keep global warming to 2°C. A vegan diet can also help you lose weight and lower your blood pressure.
But, choosing to go vegan is a big commitment, and this is not something everyone can just take up as the diet is not right for everyone.
There are tons of ways you can change your diet to benefit the environment. If you ever choose to go for a sustainable diet and want help with sustainable eating, then you need to check out the tips below. They will help you follow an eco-friendly diet.
If at the moment, most of your protein sources come from animal produce, then you need to gradually cut back on it. According to experts, you should eat at least 4.4 ounces of dry beans, peas, lentils, or nuts per day and nothing more than 1 serving of dairy and 1 serving of poultry, eggs, fish, or red meat per day.
Try supporting local farmers more by purchasing fresh, in-season fruits and vegetables. With this, you are reducing carbon footprints that involve transporting food over long distances.
Go for seafood that has been certified as sustainable by organizations like the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) to help reduce and prevent overfishing and keep marine life safe.
Go for foods that are produced using regenerative agriculture, which focuses on keeping the soil healthy thereby supporting the whole ecosystem that has to do with farming. These farms usually avoid harmful pesticides and fertilizers, and they also rotate crops so that soil nutrients don’t become fully depleted.
Processed foods are usually produced with more energy and resources. By choosing fresh foods, and whole foods and buying in bulk, you are reducing packaging waste.
Most of the time, the meals you prepare at home are more nutritious than those from restaurants or fast-food chains. Home-cooked meals allow you to control the ingredients, portion sizes, and cooking methods, reducing unhealthy additives such as excess salt, sugar, and unhealthy fats.
Having even a small herb garden or vegetable patch at home can help reduce your reliance on store-bought produce and cut down on transportation emissions.
Minimizing food wastage is very vital when it comes to sustainability, even though minimizing it is inevitable. Your aim should be to cook and eat foods before they go bad, or make use of edible portions of produce as possible, eat your leftovers, and even get yourself new ways to make use of scraps.
The paleo or paleolithic diet basically entails eating like our ancestors did. This diet has you eating a lot of meat, fresh fruits, fish, nuts, vegetables, and nuts, but no legumes, grains, processed foods or diary produce. Although this diet copies a pre-industrialized way of eating, it still impacts our environment.
Not so long ago, researchers compared the paleo diet with the Spanish Diet, Southern European Atlantic Diet, and Mediterranean Diet. In the end, they concluded that the paleo diet was “an expensive and not nutritionally adequate diet, plus it has a high carbon footprint.
On the other hand, a macrobiotic diet eliminates all meat and animal fats, and it encourages you to eat a lot of whole grains, seaweed, vegetables, and beans. There are several lifestyle rules to follow, which is drinking and cooking with only purified water.
Macrobiotics focuses mainly on organic, locally grown, seasonal produce but the very restrictive nature of the diet means that you miss out on some vitamins and minerals. While this is great for the environment compared to plenty of other diets, this may not be practical for you.
Plant-based meat sustainability is complex. According to “Beyond Meat’s Beyond Burger Life Cycle Assessment: A Detailed Comparison Between a Plant-Based and an Animal-Based Protein Source,” conducted by the University of Michigan, plant-based meat generates about 90% fewer greenhouse gas emissions and has 93% less effect on land use, and this requires 46% less energy.
However, the figures used to generate these statistics don’t distinguish between beef produced in industrial feedlots and cattle produced with regenerative, sustainable methods, such as intensive grazing management, which can maintain biodiversity and enhance soil health.
Plus, most research carried out on the environmental impact of plant-based meat is mostly funded by companies that manufacture the product. Experts stated that while plant-based beef alternatives are lower in saturated fat and cholesterol than beef, they contain a higher percentage of sodium. It is recommended by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) that you limit your sodium intake in other to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Since at the moment, no long-term research can fully show how plant-based meat affects our health, it is impossible to say that these alternatives are better for our health than beef or other meats.
The deal is that a sustainable diet is basically one that reduces and limits highly processed foods, and this includes plant-based meat.
Sustainable eating is not a one-size-fits-all approach, but it is recommended that you cut back on meat, dairy, fish, and foods that are heavily processed.
A sustainable diet prioritizes whole, plant-based foods while allowing for moderate consumption of animal products if desired. For those looking to switch to a more sustainable way of eating, it is important that you choose a diet that feels manageable and start with small, gradual changes.
