The Planetary Health Diet (PHD) is a globally applicable dietary pattern rooted in the best available scientific evidence. It aims to simultaneously support optimal human health and environmental sustainability. This article explores the principles of the PHD, providing examples of how to incorporate it into your daily life.
Understanding the Planetary Health Diet
The Planetary Health Diet represents a dietary pattern that can be applied globally for different populations and different contexts, while also supporting cultural and regional variation. It prioritizes a high intake of plant-based foods, including whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes, while recommending moderate to small amounts of fish, dairy, and meat. The PHD is based entirely on the direct effects of different diets on human health, not on environmental criteria. This approach promotes a shift in both consumption and production patterns, making healthy and sustainable food more accessible and reducing pressure on planetary boundaries. Transforming food will require cooperation across sectors, cultures, and regions.
The Importance of a Sustainable Food System
The food we eat is more than a personal choice. It is a public issue with global consequences. Today’s food systems are, in many ways, failing. Millions face hunger, while others suffer from completely preventable chronic diseases. Food production contributes to environmental degradation and deepens inequality, when it could be the primary source of environmental regeneration, and justice. The EAT-Lancet Commission’s approach to food addresses these challenges by linking health, sustainability, and justice.
Our current dietary habits, laden with meat-heavy meals and staggering food waste, have become a recipe for disaster. Global food production-especially factory-farmed red meat- is one of the most significant drivers of environmental degradation, climate instability, and biodiversity loss. Unhealthy diets that are heavy in red and processed meats, particularly in affluent Western societies where food is plentiful, and overconsumption is commonplace, are a leading risk factor for diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and cancer. Conversely, in many poorer or conflict-stricken regions, food scarcity remains a grim reality, with starvation being a persistent problem. It appears that what is bad for our bodies is also bad for the planet, and a shift towards plant-based and plant-centered diets can improve our overall health while significantly reducing our environmental impacts.
Key Components of the Planetary Health Diet
The Planetary Health Diet combines a harmonious selection of healthy and resource-efficient foods that protect the environment while promoting health. The focus is on balance: a diet that prevents disease while minimising environmental impacts such as climate change, biodiversity loss or excessive water consumption. The Planetary Health Diet promotes a sustainable lifestyle that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their needs.
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Emphasis on Plant-Based Foods
The PHD is best described as a flexitarian diet that is predominantly plant-based but may include modest amounts of fish, meat and dairy. A typical meal should consist of approximately half of the plate covered with vegetables and fruit of different colours; a third made up of wholegrains, followed by plant proteins (beans, pulses), some unsaturated oils with optional but modest amounts of animal protein and dairy and some added sugars and starchy vegetables.
Moderate Intake of Animal Products
While the PHD emphasizes plant-based foods, it allows for moderate consumption of animal products like fish, poultry, and dairy. Red meat consumption is significantly reduced.
Limiting Refined Grains, Processed Foods, and Added Sugars
The PHD encourages variation in vegetable and fruit intake by promoting different colours, focuses on unsaturated rather than saturated fats and limits refined grains, highly processed foods, added sugars and starchy vegetables (including potatoes).
Calorie Intake
The diet supplies an optimal calorific intake, which for the average adult is 2500kcal per day, but varies depending on age, gender and activity levels.
Implementing the Planetary Health Diet
The PHD is flexible and can be adapted to suit individual needs. It does not require complicated recipes, but focuses on simple, plant-based meals with fresh, local ingredients. With good planning, such as creating a weekly meal plan or preparing meals in advance, it can be easily integrated into daily life.
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Gradual Transition
A gradual transition could start by gradually reducing meat consumption, for example by having meat-free days. In addition, processed foods can be replaced with fresh, plant-based alternatives.
Incorporating Seasonal and Local Foods
The Planetary Health Diet suggests to consume seasonal available foods. Local produce can be found at farmers' markets, farm shops, organic stores, community-supported agriculture and subscription boxes. Ever heard the term “locavore,” meaning someone who eats local food? Taste: local food might taste better because it was picked at its peak, instead of weeks earlier, like produce you find at the grocery store. Climate impact: It travels less distance to get to you, which lowers the transportation footprint. Supporting local economies: Buying local keeps money circulating in your local economy. Incorporate local food by finding a farmers’ market in your area or joining a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, which delivers boxes of local food to your door or an easily accessible location every week.
Reducing Food Waste
Weekly meal planning allows you to optimize your food purchases and save you time. By planning meals for the week, you can ensure you only buy what you need, reducing the likelihood of excess food ending up in the bin. Meal planning will also help diversify your diet, improving overall health. Make sure you use up the food you buy.
Planetary Health Diet Example Meal Plan
To illustrate how the PHD might look on a day-to-day basis, the PHD sets out a reference diet as follows:
- Protein (daily amount/possible range)
- Nuts (50g/0-27g)
- Beans, chickpeas, lentils etc (75g/0-100g)
- Fish (28g/0-100g)
- Eggs (13g/0-25g)
- Red meat i.e. beef, lamb, pork (14g/0-28g)
- Poultry (29g/0-58g)
- Dairy (250g/0-500g)
- Carbohydrates (daily amount/possible range)
- Wholegrains i.e. rice, wheat, oats (232g)
- Starchy vegetables i.e. potatoes (50g/0-100g)
- Vegetables (300g, equivalent to 3-4 portions/200-600g)
- Fruit (200g, equivalent to 2.5 portions/100-300g)
- Added sugars (31g/0-31g)
- Fats (daily amount/possible range)
- Unsaturated (40g/20-80g)
- Saturated (11.8g/0-11.8g)
What this means in real terms is you might enjoy one beef burger and two servings of fish per week with the remainder of your protein derived from beans, pulses and nuts. You may include a glass of milk or some cheese or butter each day and just under two eggs per week.
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Sample one-week menu framework
Below is a sample one-week menu framework and shopping list for one person for reference. Remember to adjust the quantities based on your preferences (while remaining within the Planetarian guidelines), and please always be mindful of any dietary restrictions or allergies.
Meal Ideas
- Peppers stuffed with rice and organic meatless soy “beef” or “chicken.” To make it vegan, forgo cheese topping and use salsa, vegan cheese, or olive tapenade instead.
- Tex-mex veggie bowl: Add rice, beans, sautéed veggies, guacamole, and salsa to a bowl in whatever proportions make you happy.
- Veggie skewers: Add seasonal veggies and organic tofu or chicken pieces to skewers. Brush with BBQ sauce, salad dressing, or oil and a favorite spice blend. Bake or grill.
- Come full circle with climate-friendly lentil soup. Lentils have the lowest carbon footprint per pound than any other food.
Additional Tips for Sustainable Eating
- Choose Sustainable Seafood: The best way to get high-quality seafood that’s caught in an eco-friendly way is to buy local and check labels. If you have a fish market in your community, talk to the employees about where fish comes from. In stores, look for labels including Marine Stewardship Council, Fishwise, and Seafood Safe.
- Reduce Eating Out: Many folks who are interested in their health and the health of the Earth avoid eating out because food tends to be more processed, or when it’s organic and unprocessed, it can get rather pricey. That doesn’t mean you can’t treat yourself to a night out once in a while.
Benefits of the Planetary Health Diet
The Commission claimed the potential benefits included preventing approximately 11 million deaths each year, caused by diet-related disease.
Health Benefits
It's widely documented that increasing plant-based foods in your diet offers numerous health benefits. The additional fibre found in plants supports gut health and acts as an important fuel source for the microbes that live there. The lower levels of sugar and refined carbohydrates proposed by the PHD may reduce the incidence of certain metabolic diseases, including type 2 diabetes and heart disease.
Environmental Benefits
Reducing the amount of meat in your diet, especially red meat, is one of the most potent actions you can take to lower your climate impact. Factory-farmed meat production contributes heavily to greenhouse gas emissions, accounting for 57% of total emissions associated with food production. It also contributes to widespread deforestation and loss of biodiversity, both significant drivers of climate change.
Criticisms and Considerations
That said, the PHD has not been without criticism, with some industry experts suggesting the findings are based on outdated research. An example being the limitations on the consumption of saturated fats, which appear to lie at the crux of the health recommendations to reduce red meat, eggs and dairy.
Others have criticised the diet for proposing unrealistic and dangerously small portions of optional animal-source protein, which poses the risk of nutritional deficiencies. The deficits in question include levels of vitamin B12 as well as retinol, vitamin D and calcium. In response, the Commission claims the PHD is an omnivore diet with approximately two servings of animal-sourced protein per day and they acknowledge that levels of vitamin B12 may need to be supplemented or fortified foods included.
Another important aspect of a healthy diet involves eating food sources of essential fatty acids (omega-3 and omega-6) in optimal balance. The higher levels of plant oils combined with low levels of fish in the PHD is more likely to suggest an unhealthy omega-6 to omega-3 ratio.
In response to these and other criticisms, the Commission cites that they used the best available evidence on diet and human health, and that their conclusions are based on consistent evidence from a wide collection of studies. These include randomised controlled feeding studies, randomised trials assessing weight, randomised trials assessing the risk of a specific disease, and long-term epidemiology studies involving hundreds of thousands of people over a number of decades. However, they note that in certain instances only a limited number of studies were available, such as for randomised trials looking at the risk of specific diseases. This is because of the inherent problem with nutritional research in that clinical trials on diet and human health are often not possible because they need people to adhere to an assigned diet for a long period of time, which has ethical implications.
It’s also worth noting that the Commission emphasises that the reference diet does not imply the global population should eat the same foods, nor does it prescribe an exact diet with the associated potential for nutritional deficits. Instead, it outlines food groups and ranges of food intakes, which when combined in a diet, would support human health.
In this way, the Commission claims the PHD encourages local interpretation so that the culture and demography of the population is reflected. However, in countries like the UK, where average meat consumption is rising, the PHD would require a significant change to dietary habits. This is relevant because for the PHD to achieve its goals, it relies on a large number of the global population to adopt its guidelines.
Who should not follow the PHD?
It’s worth bearing in mind that the reference diet set out in the PHD is aimed at an average moderately active adult and is not relevant to children under two years, older people, pregnant or breast-feeding women and in some cases pre-menopausal women. As with any dietary change, it's best to speak to your doctor before making any changes, especially if you have an underlying health condition or are on medication.