Study shows global impact Med diet could have
Fifteen million fewer deaths per year, a 29% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions, a 51% reduction in land use, and 5 trillion in annual benefits from the economic, health and environmental outcomes of food production and consumption systems would be the minimal benefits if all countries adopted a planetary health diet resembling the traditional Mediterranean diet, according to studies of the EAT-Lancet Commission.
The results were presented Wednesday at the Athens Academy of Sciences by Walter. C. Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
He said food systems produce about a third of greenhouse gases, so even if the consumption of fossil fuels was zeroed, the Paris climate agreement targets will not be met unless the food system is changed. The challenge, he said, was to see how 9.8 billion people can be fed by 2050 on a diet that is both healthy and sustainable.
