Want to improve the Earth’s health while raising your chances of living longer? A new kind of diet might help with that.
A recent study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found the Planetary Health Diet, which emphasizes nonprocessed, plant-based food with a modest amount of meat and dairy, can lower risk of premature death by 30%. It also can substantially decrease the average person’s environmental impact, according to CBS News.
The researchers used health data from more than 200,000 people enrolled in the Nurses’ Health Study I and II and the Health Professionals Follow-Up Study who completed dietary questionnaires every four years over a 34-year period, according to a news release.
Their diets were then scored based on their intake of 15 food groups, including whole grains, vegetables, poultry and nuts. This was to determine how well participants stuck to the diet. The study found that every major cause of death, including heart disease, lung disease and cancer, was lowered in people whose diets adhered most closely to the Planetarian Health Diet (also called the Planetarian diet).
This was the first large study to evaluate the health effects of the diet, which researchers found can decrease a person’s greenhouse gas emissions by 29% and their land use by 51%.
The scientists noted that using less land is important forreforestation and reducing levels of greenhouse gases that are driving climate change.
“Climate change has our planet on track for ecological disaster, and our food system plays a major role,” Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition Harvard’s T.H. Chan School of Public Health, said in the news release. “Shifting how we eat can help slow the process of climate change. And what’s healthiest for the planet is also healthiest for humans.”
“The findings show just how linked human and planetary health are. Eating healthfully boosts environmental sustainability, which in turn is essential for the health and well-being of every person on earth.”
What to eat on the diet
The diet emphasizes an increase in consumption of vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains and nuts, while lowering your intake of raw and refined sugars, and red meat, according to CBS News.
First proposed by the EAT-Lancet Commission in 2019, the diet’s designers hoped to address how to sustainably feed an increasing population.
The components of the plan are similar to the Mediterranean diet and can be adapted to be completely plant based.
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