Conference Report | Eco-Nutrition ‘
...the production of animal protein uses more natural resources than plant protein.
The Double Pyramid – A food guide that is healthy for people, as well as for the
’
planet Professor Gabriele Riccardi from the Federico II University in Naples, Italy, explained how the incidence of lifestyle diseases such as obesity, cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes and cancer are a huge health burden for many industrialised countries. While deaths from infectious diseases are projected to drop, deaths from lifestyle diseases are expected to increase. Research has shown that a healthy diet, which places the emphasis on eating more plant foods and reducing the consumption of animal foods, is important to help lower the risk of developing these diseases. The traditional Mediterranean Diet has been
proposed as an ideal model to help promote this way of eating. It’s based on a diet rich in legumes, olive oil, cereals, nuts, fish, fruits and vegetables and smaller amounts of meat and dairy foods. This eating pattern is consistent with nutritional guidelines and has been shown to be beneficial to health. To help describe this way of eating, the Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition (BCFN) has designed a pictorial food pyramid. Foods that should be eaten in smaller amounts are placed at the top of the pyramid (e.g. meat, dairy products and sweets) and those that need to be eaten in greater quantities (e.g. vegetables, fruits and legumes) are at the base. Professor Riccardi then went onto describe how
a Double Food Pyramid has now been designed to also take into account the impact of food production on the environment. The BCFN has analysed the environmental impact of different foods using the Life Cycle Assessment approach. This method takes into account factors such as Greenhouse Gas emissions (GHGe), water and land requirements during all stages of food production. Based on this, an environmental food pyramid has been developed which orders food down according to their environmental impact.
Professor Riccardi
concluded by explaining that generally plant foods are more environmentally friendly than those of animal origin, which is in good agreement with food choices to promote good health (see Figure 1).
Protein Consumption and Sustainability: diet diversity in
Europe The environmental effect of different protein sources was then explained by Professor Harry Aiking from the VU University in Amsterdam. The Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO)
have projected that global food demand will increase by 70 per cent over the next 40 years to feed the growing population. This in turn will have impacts on the environment such as pollution (pesticides, climate change, eutrophication) and resource depletion (biodiversity, water, phosphate and fuel). The challenge therefore being faced is the need to produce more food while simultaneously reducing the environmental impacts to improve sustainability. This dilemma was explained in relation to
proteins. Nitrogen in the air is essential for plants to make proteins. However, to solely rely on the natural method of converting Nitrogen to ammonia, which plants then use to synthesise proteins, would limit the amount of crops that could be grown. However, the introduction of fertilisers has provided an alternative ammonia source for plants. Subsequently this increase in crop production has enabled the population to grow from around 1.2 billion people in the early 1900s to todays seven billion. In fact, it has been suggested that only three billion people could be fed without the use of fertilisers. At the same time as fertiliser use has increased, so has meat consumption. This is projected to rise even further with FAO suggesting that 465 billion kilograms of meat need to be produced in 2050 compared to 45 billion kilograms in 1950. Yet fertilisers also have an environmental impact. Only half of the nitrogen is taken up by the plant
Figure 1: The Double Pyramid for Adults
38 | CN Focus Vol.4 No.1 April 2012
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