A sustainable diet can change the world: what’s in the new report of the Eat Lancet Commission

The way we produce the food we eat, our food choices and our waste are the basis of most of the health, ecological and world social justice problems, but from food you can also leave to imagine a better world.

The message of the 2025 report of the EAT commission could be summarized thus Lancetthe most complete scientific evaluation of global food systems. The document, an update compared to the 2019 evaluation, provides the foundations for a healthy and sustainable diet, which can feed 9.6 billion people in 2050 without exceeding critical ecological thresholds for the stability of our planet.

The Eat-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health, brings together experts in agriculture, health, economics, social justice, nutrition and environmental sciences from 17 countries around the world with the aim of informing public and decision on how to transform food systems, so as to guarantee a healthy and sustainable diet for the planet compatible with a growing population, and in a way that can be faced from an economic point of view.

Of the latest report, released in 2019, We had written here: Already in that document the Commission advised a diet mainly based on foods of vegetable origin but which does not disdain every now and then animal proteins, as an ideal solution for our health and the environment. However, the approach was later criticized because it is too expensive, especially for developing countries that suffer from the way in which today the food is produced and distributed.

Let’s start from the painful points: although quite food is produced to respond to the calorie needs of all the inhabitants of the earth, almost 3.7 billion people, just under half of the world population, does not have constant access today and guaranteed to a healthy diet, a stable salary or an unlawful environment in which to live healthy.

At the same time, food production is one of the main pressure sources on ecosystems, being responsible for 30% of global greenhouse gase emissions as well as to push us dangerously on the threshold of non -return points for the health of the planet (there is food, at the center of the issue of climate change, loss of biodiversity, excessive consumption and in the deterioration of water bodies, in the spread of pesticides and antibiotics.

The mainly vegetable -based diet, but flexible and remodelable on the food availability and cultural traditions of each country proposed by the Commission – the Planetary Health Diet (PHD), a health and planet health diet – could provide enough food for 9.6 billion people, the land number that will live in the land in 2050, simultaneously improving global health: a passage to this type of power would reduce this type of nutrition would reduce The global risk of premature death of 27%, avoiding about 15 million premature deaths per year and strongly reducing the risk of chronic diseases, such as cancer, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular problems.

Okay, but what does this diet provide? Wholemeal cereals, fruit and vegetables, dried fruit, legumes are the daily base, completed by a moderate contribution of animal proteins: red meat in small quantities once a week, chicken and fish twice to weeks, with the second to be preferred, 3 or 4 eggs per week and a portion of milk, yogurt or cheese per day. A brake on added sugars, saturated fats and rooms to reduce the health problems associated with nutrition.

“The planetary diet for health is not a universal approach”, points out Walter C. Willett, co-president of the commission and professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard That School of Public Health. “He takes into account cultural diversity and individual preferences, offering flexibility within clear guidelines to achieve optimal results in terms of health and sustainability all over the world”. The authors emphasize the importance of not being rigid in the approach and decline the diet according to the needs of age (for example, of children), condition (for example, pregnant women) and countries of origin.

Ideally, if the entire world population chose this diet for itself, carbon emissions related to the cibo sector would come by more than 15% compared to 2020 – by 20%, if in addition to eating well, the losses and waste of food and improved the food production systems. Under this optimistic scenario there would also be a 7% reduction of the use of used lands for agriculture, a nice breath for the restoration of biodiversity and ecosystem services.

The members of the Commission also underline that “without dealing with the inequalities rooted in current food systems, no transformation will be complete or lasting”, in the words of Christina Hicks, which teaches social sciences at the University of Lancaster, in the United Kingdom. Interventions are needed to ensure even economic accessibility to nourishing food, honest wages and dignified working conditions for those who work in the food supply chain at each level, to strengthen and involve the marginal communities in processes that enhance the resources of the territory.

You can still greatly improve: currently, 30% richest in the world population is responsible for about 70% of the environmental pressures created by food systems; Millions of children are involved in forms of work in the fields, and almost a third of the food system workers gains less than it should: it happens above all to women, who are also the least represented in trade union and political discussions.