Article - How NOT To Eat The World

What you eat affects the world.

There was a time when most food was produced (and consumed) locally. Less resources were needed to raise and transport it; from farm to fork. Raw food stock didn’t undergo the kind of energy-, water- and chemical-intensive processing the modern food industry employs today, either.

But there’s no way we can turn the clock back and return to those simpler times. The urgent need to feed growing populations means that factory farming and mass production techniques can never be wholly abandoned.

However, there are ways to mitigate the burden on our health and the planet’s. Eating more healthily could:

● prevent 5.1 million deaths per year. This is because this would reduce the prevalence of chronic, non-communicable diseases associated with high body weight and unhealthy diets.

● help mitigate an expected growth in food-related greenhouse gas emissions.

● enable economic benefits due to lower healthcare costs and fewer lost workdays associated with deaths from specific diseases caused by poor diet, adding up to impressive savings annually.

Here are a few simple dietary substitutions that could improve your health - and the environment’s - as well:

Millet, instead of Rice: Hailed as “the new quinoa,” millet has graduated from bird food to trendy superfood. The beauty of millet, aside from its great taste and ease in cooking, is that it is fiercely drought-resistant and requires very little water. In fact, it has the lowest water requirement of any grain. Rice, on the other hand, is a very thirsty crop.

Sunflower/Safflower Oil, instead of Palm Oil: Production of palm oil is responsible for relentless deforestation of Indonesian and Malaysian rainforests, which is driving orangutans to extinction and threatening many other species. We can't let our consumption of palm oil be the end of orangutans. Sunflower and safflower crops, are generally GMO–free and not especially water-hungry. And they don't kill orangutans.

Legumes, instead of Meat: The world is not going to transition to a plant-based diet overnight, but if everyone just skipped meat or cheese for one day per week for a year, this would be the equivalent of taking 7.6 million cars off the road. Also, mixing legumes with a grain creates a composite protein comparable to meat and is healthier for your body as well.

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