A healthy diet would not only make it possible to live better and longer but also to limit global warming.
Eating healthy is good for your health, it is well known. A balanced diet helps maintain a balanced weight and avoid diabetes, obesity and many cardiovascular disorders, thereby limiting medical costs. Thus, a healthy diet is also beneficial to the economy. But also to the environment, according to a new study published on January 22 in the journal Environmental Health Perspective.
“We wanted to determine which dietary patterns might offer the greatest co-benefits,” says Jono Drew, from the University of Otaga (New Zealand), in the preamble to the paper. He and his team therefore developed a database to assess the life cycle of foods and their consequences on the environment. At the same time, they set up a mathematical model to calculate the health consequences of the current average diet of a New Zealander and of an ideal diet, that is to say respecting all dietary recommendations.
“All of our scenarios have been designed to meet New Zealand dietary guidelines. We started with a baseline scenario where we looked at the minimum dietary changes needed, from what New Zealanders are currently consuming, to meet the guidelines. These changes included an increase in the consumption of vegetables, fruits, whole grains and milk, as well as a decrease in the consumption of highly processed foods. From there, we adapted our food scenarios to be progressively more plant-based, i.e. replacing animal foods with plant-based alternatives. We thought it was important to show what was possible if people were willing to change their eating habits, and what would be possible if our entire population took a major shift in that same direction,” says Drew.
Plant-based alternatives
As has been proven many times in the past, vegetables, fruits, legumes and whole grains are much less polluting than foods of animal origin, especially red and processed meats.
“Fortunately, the foods that are good for you also tend to be those that are climate-friendly. Conversely, some foods with known health risks are particularly polluting for the climate. The consumption of red meat and processed meat, for example, is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes and certain cancers,” comments Dr. Alexandra Macmillan, lead author of the study.
“As our modeled food scenarios became increasingly plant-based and therefore more climate-friendly, we found that health gains and associated health cost savings at the population level also tended to increase. A scenario that replaced all meat, seafood, eggs, and dairy with plant-based alternatives, and also required people to eliminate all unnecessary household food waste, proved to be the most beneficial. for these three parameters”, explains Drew.
Less 42% CO emissions2 food related
Thus, if the New Zealand population were to modify their diet to follow the health recommendations in force, this could make it possible, depending of course on the extent of the changes, to reduce CO emissions2 food-related by 42% per year. That’s emission savings equivalent to a 59% reduction in annual emissions from light-duty vehicles in New Zealand, according to the researchers. In terms of health, this would also improve between 1 and 1.5 million lives (quality of life, longevity, etc.) and thus savings ranging from 14 to 20 billion dollars for the New Zealand health system. .
In France, where food accounts for 24% of the population’s greenhouse gas emissions, those who do not want to become vegetarians can be reassured. By following this model, it should be possible to conserve around 30% of food production of animal origin while having little influence on the climate. Because we have plenty of land suitable for farming. The ideal would therefore be to feed the animals with local fodder and locally produced plants such as flax or rapeseed.
For the researchers, these results should encourage governments to take appropriate measures to effectively help people change their eating habits. Finally, they advocate the implementation of pricing strategies, labeling systems and food supply guidelines for public institutions.
“A global food system that no longer aggravates the climate crisis”
And Drew concludes: “Well-designed public policy is needed around the world to support the creation of a global food system that no longer aggravates the climate crisis, nor the burden of non-communicable diseases.”
In France, the government intends to halve the emissions of greenhouse gas of the agricultural sector by 2050. “A weak meat eater (50g per day) emits 1.5 times less greenhouse gases than a heavy meat eater (100g per day)”, notes the association Réseau action climat France on its website. As for a vegetarian, he emits nearly 2 times less.
However, according to worrying work recently published in the journal Lancet Planetary Health, if nothing is done to stem the rise in temperatures, by 2100 more than 150,000 Europeans could die due to extreme climatic events.
.
