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Image of people preventing planet earth from falling off a cliff to illustrate the danger of climate change.

Transformation of the global food system is urgently needed as more than 3 billion people are malnourished (including people who are under nourished and over nourished), and food production is exceeding planetary boundaries – driving climate change, biodiversity loss, pollution due to over-application of nitrogen and phosphorus fertilizers, and unsustainable changes in water and land use.

The findings are from the EAT-Lancet Commission report. The Commission brings together 37 experts from 16 countries with expertise in health, nutrition, environmental sustainability, food systems, and economics and political governance. Dr Marco Springmann and Dr Michael Clark are both involved in the 3 year-project.

The report, published in The Lancet, provides the first scientific targets for a healthy diet from a sustainable food production system that operates within planetary boundaries for food. It promotes diets consisting of a variety of plant-based foods, with low amounts of animal-based foods, refined grains, highly processed foods, and added sugars, and with unsaturated rather than saturated fats.

Human diets inextricably link health and environmental sustainability, and have the potential to nurture both. However, current diets are pushing the Earth beyond its planetary boundaries, while causing ill health. This puts both people and the planet at risk. Providing healthy diets from sustainable food systems is an immediate challenge as the population continues to grow – projected to reach 10 billion people by 2050 – and get wealthier (with the expectation of higher consumption of animal-based foods).

To meet this challenge, dietary changes must be combined with improved food production and reduced food waste. The authors stress that unprecedented global collaboration and commitment will be needed, alongside immediate changes such as refocussing agriculture to produce varied nutrient-rich crops, and increased governance of land and ocean use.

Key findings from the report

Feeding a growing population of 10 billion people by 2050 with a healthy and sustainable diet will be impossible without transforming eating habits, improving food production, and reducing food waste. First scientific targets for a healthy diet that places healthy food consumption within the boundaries of our planet will require significant change, but are within reach.

The daily dietary pattern of a planetary health diet consists of approximately 35% of calories as whole grains and tubers, protein sources mainly from plants – but including approximately 14g of red meat per day – and 500g per day of vegetables and fruits.

Moving to this new dietary pattern will require global consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar to decrease by about 50%, while consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables, and legumes must double.

Unhealthy diets are the leading cause of ill-health worldwide and following the diet could avoid approximately 11 million premature deaths per year.

A shift towards the planetary health diet would ensure the global food system. The diet can exists within planetary boundaries for food production such as those for climate change, biodiversity loss, land and freshwater use, as well as nutrient cycles.