The latest instalment of nutritional confusion and idiocy of late is from the release of a new report from the EAT-Lancet Commission, which is the collaboration of the EAT group and The Lancet, with the former being a non-profit startup and the latter allegedly one of the world's leading scientific and medical journals. Really they both should know better...
The EAT-Lancet Commission Report was only recently released (Jan 16, 2019), and is a joint report for a "global health diet" that is allegedly healthy for both people and the planet. Sounds great so far... although a single diet for everyone already has my hackles up, as that simply will not work!
The EAT group hide behind other companies and foundations, but mostly funded by a Norwegian billionaire couple, of which Gunhild Stordalen, is a former model turned doctor and environmentalist, and her husband owns a large chain of hotels. Ironically one of their Foundation's slogans on their website is "sustainable business is big business", no doubt being big profits for them. Another of the Foundation's initiatives is the "Zero Emissions Resource Organisation (ZERO)", to limit climate change caused by human activities, and several other climate and health related initiatives. So why then do the two owners of the EAT group and Foundations own a $20 million private jet in which they fly all around the world in?! And the many meetings of the EAT-Lancet group, including 37 scientists were regularly flown around the world to attend... Not very green, sustainable, environmentally friendly. Very hypocritical I think!
The EAT group is, according to them, a global initiative linking food, health, and sustainability across science, business and politics. The project is far more than developing a single global diet, but one which makes many recommendations about sustainable farming and agricultural practices, environmental impacts, and politics - of free trade, and how to get governments to implement the EAT-Lancet recommendations and how to sell it to the world's population. Good luck with that, as there are many renowned critics of the recommendations, and justifiably so, even days after the report has been released.
The major recommendation of the EAT-Lancet report is that everyone should be eating a LOT less meat and dairy, and replacing these with more plant-based foods! And by less meat, I mean just 7 grams per day of red meat, or 29 grams per day of chicken or fish! Or just one-fifth of an egg!
If the currently recommended food guidelines are so good for us all (allegedly, but they aren't), then why do this group want to make such drastic changes to our meals? Simple, because of their personal bias - with 84% of the scientists on the EAT-Lancet panel being vegetarians or vegans themselves.
As I've said before, yes some people need to eat more vegetables to get more nutrients which will improve their health! But any diet is only as good as the quality and quantity of the nutrients in the foods. If a diet isn't providing sufficient nutrients for you, especially for a significant amount of time, such as this proposed global diet which is lacking a lot of nutrients, then your health will suffer with symptoms and disease.
Of course we also need to be more environmentally aware, and be more sustainable with our resources of food and energy production. We aren't doing too well with this, mostly due to general apathy of the issue, or government or industry regulations (or lack of) which allows damage to be done to the environment on a massive scale.
How does the EAT-Lancet report's recommendations stand up to my scrutiny?! I will analyse their diet and recommendations in my next article!
The EAT-Lancet Commission Report was only recently released (Jan 16, 2019), and is a joint report for a "global health diet" that is allegedly healthy for both people and the planet. Sounds great so far... although a single diet for everyone already has my hackles up, as that simply will not work!
The EAT group hide behind other companies and foundations, but mostly funded by a Norwegian billionaire couple, of which Gunhild Stordalen, is a former model turned doctor and environmentalist, and her husband owns a large chain of hotels. Ironically one of their Foundation's slogans on their website is "sustainable business is big business", no doubt being big profits for them. Another of the Foundation's initiatives is the "Zero Emissions Resource Organisation (ZERO)", to limit climate change caused by human activities, and several other climate and health related initiatives. So why then do the two owners of the EAT group and Foundations own a $20 million private jet in which they fly all around the world in?! And the many meetings of the EAT-Lancet group, including 37 scientists were regularly flown around the world to attend... Not very green, sustainable, environmentally friendly. Very hypocritical I think!
The EAT group is, according to them, a global initiative linking food, health, and sustainability across science, business and politics. The project is far more than developing a single global diet, but one which makes many recommendations about sustainable farming and agricultural practices, environmental impacts, and politics - of free trade, and how to get governments to implement the EAT-Lancet recommendations and how to sell it to the world's population. Good luck with that, as there are many renowned critics of the recommendations, and justifiably so, even days after the report has been released.
The major recommendation of the EAT-Lancet report is that everyone should be eating a LOT less meat and dairy, and replacing these with more plant-based foods! And by less meat, I mean just 7 grams per day of red meat, or 29 grams per day of chicken or fish! Or just one-fifth of an egg!
If the currently recommended food guidelines are so good for us all (allegedly, but they aren't), then why do this group want to make such drastic changes to our meals? Simple, because of their personal bias - with 84% of the scientists on the EAT-Lancet panel being vegetarians or vegans themselves.
As I've said before, yes some people need to eat more vegetables to get more nutrients which will improve their health! But any diet is only as good as the quality and quantity of the nutrients in the foods. If a diet isn't providing sufficient nutrients for you, especially for a significant amount of time, such as this proposed global diet which is lacking a lot of nutrients, then your health will suffer with symptoms and disease.
Of course we also need to be more environmentally aware, and be more sustainable with our resources of food and energy production. We aren't doing too well with this, mostly due to general apathy of the issue, or government or industry regulations (or lack of) which allows damage to be done to the environment on a massive scale.
How does the EAT-Lancet report's recommendations stand up to my scrutiny?! I will analyse their diet and recommendations in my next article!
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