Planetary Health: integrating personal and environmental health.
The concept of ‘Planetary Health’ has emerged to go beyond previous conceptualisations of individual health and environmental health as two separate things, and instead highlight their interdependence. The following quote serves to illustrate this:
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“Carbon dioxide emissions caused by human activity are altering the nutritional content of key crops, including wheat, rice, barley, and soy. This puts hundreds of millions of people, mostly in Africa and South Asia, at risk for vitamin deficiencies.” (p. 5)[1].
This suggests that personal health cannot be separated from environmental health and we should start thinking about health within this new perspective proposed by the concept of ‘Planetary Health’. An effective way to do this is to consider the benefits of plant-based diets to ourselves and the environment.
Overconsumption of highly processed foods, sugar, additives and meat, has been proven to have numerous health implications for individuals. Reducing meat consumption has been associated with a significant decline in the incidence rates of type II diabetes, cancer, mortality from chronic coronary heart disease and mortality in general (see reference for figures) [2]. Plant-based diets translate into an increase in the consumption of fruits and vegetables and have been described as healthier than meat-dominated diets by UK policy, guidelines and reports, such as ‘The Eatwell Guide’ [3] and the ‘EAT-Lancet Planetary Health Diet’ [4].
At the same time, the production of meat is associated with a multitude of environmental issues including greenhouse gas emissions (from things like deforestation and manure), soil erosion, biodiversity loss, excessive land and water use, and others. Eating a plant-based diet is an effective way to reduce our environmental footprints (in other words: our negative impact on the environment). In fact, it has been identified as one of the main actions with the greatest potential to effectively reduce personal greenhouse gas emissions [5].
To sum up, adopting a plant-based diet, or even just reducing your meat consumption, can have beneficial outcomes for yourself and others (including future generations). This has been demonstrated by the fact that it promotes wider planetary health by mitigating climate change and reducing the risk of developing a range of health conditions.
For key and accessible facts about different types of plant-based diets, click on the following link to the British Dietetic Association (BDA): https://www.bda.uk.com/resource/vegetarian-vegan-plant-based-diet.html
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