You Are What You Eat… Eat-Lancet Is Nuts!

Eat-Lancet is just wrong…

Can we feed a future population of 10 billion people a healthy diet within planetary boundaries as Eat-Lancet Commission (#foodcanfixit) suggests?

Scientists around the globe are extremely concerned, but many of us are equally alarmed by this report. Climate change is happening, but we need more research (not narrow assumptions or cherry-picked data) on how to continue reducing agriculture’s carbon footprint.

Consuming at least 5-daily servings of fruits and vegetables is a great step in promoting health and most importantly, preventing cardiovascular disease. It’s true that plant foods provide a unique assortment of essential nutrients and antioxidants that ward off disease. However, humans evolved as omnivores and animal-derived foods also provide nutrients such as high-quality proteins, choline, and vitamin B12, among many others that also reduce our risk of disease and promote longevity. Reducing animal-derived foods would have serious unintended consequences to global health.

Consider these facts among many others…

#FACT – Teenage girls get the least amount of calcium from the American diet. Discouraging dairy suppresses optimal bone development leading to osteoporosis later in life. The assertion that “you can get enough calcium from plants like spinach” is a myth. Plants contain lower levels of calcium that is not well absorbed by our bodies.

#FACT – Americans consume more plant foods, but in the form of refined carbohydrates (e.g., white flour, sugar and starches) but not more fruits and vegetables.

#FACT – Less than 5% of calories in the U.S. diet comes from beef. A 3-ounce serving of lean beef provides 10 essential nutrients in about 170 calories.

#FACT – Cattle generate more protein for the human food supply than would exist without them because of their unique digestive system that allows them to recycle inedible agriculture waste that would otherwise populate a landfill (e.g., crushed canola seeds, orange peels and corn husks) into high-quality protein.

The bottom line…

There is NOT scientific consensus around what constitutes a sustainable diet as the Eat-Lancet Commission suggests. We must invest in science and not modeling data based off of 40+ year old population studies… the same ones that told us eggs and fat were all bad in the 1990’s.