Eat Well & Help the Environment Too!

Healthy Food, Healthy Planet

A healthy diet also benefits the planet according to a scientific study presented this month by an Italian think tank group, The Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) (1).

Based on data from a wide variety of sources, the group computed the environmental impact of various foods in terms of how their production effects the generation of greenhouse gases (Carbon Footprint), consumption of water resources (Water Footprint) and use of territory (Ecological Footprint).

The BCFN emphasized that the world’s food supply is becoming a more costly and precious commodity, and that today’s challenge is to increase productivity with fewer resources and less pollution.

Dual Goals: Better Health & Environmental Protection

The scientists presented a “double food pyramid”, using a modernized version of the well known Mediterranean Food Pyramid alongside a new nutritional-environmental food pyramid. The double pyramid graphically shows not only how foods impact health, but also their influence on the environment.

The double pyramid depicts how the foods we should eat most frequently are those with the least environmental impact. Eat-often foods like whole-grains at the base of the food pyramid were found to have a lower impact on the environment than meat, poultry, fish, dairy, and eggs towards the top of the pyramid, as well as fats, oils and sweets.

The study concluded that reducing meat and dairy consumption, eating fewer fatty and sugary foods, and wasting less food are the three changes to our eating habits that will have the biggest effect on making diets more sustainable.

The Need to Improve our Food Selections

If making healthy and environmentally friendly nutrition choices is a shared goal, then we as Americans have room for big improvements. New research suggests that nearly the entire US population is failing to eat a diet in line with the Dietary Guidelines (2).

Researchers from the National Cancer Institute and the National Center for Nutrition Policy and Promotion examined government data which included the dietary habits of over 16,000 individuals.

They found that more than 80% of those aged 71 and older, and more than 90% of all other groups of both sexes, consumed too many calories that come from fats, added sugars and alcohol. And nearly everyone failed to meet recommendations for dark green and orange vegetables, and whole grains.

In view of the current obesity epidemic, increasing rates of diet-related chronic diseases and the need to support a more sustainable food supply, the double pyramid may prove to be a very useful tool in helping us make better food choices.

Graphic courtesy of Barilla Center for Nutrition.
View the interactive pyramid graphic at www.barillacfn.com

References

1. More information and interactive pyramid graphic available at: www.barillacfn.com.
2. Krebs-Smith SM, et al. Americans do not meet federal dietary recommendations. 140:1832-38, 2010.