Eat Lancet recommendations are developed to integrate healthy eating habits with the practices that minimize the harm to the planet Earth resulting from some foods’ manufacturing or farming approaches. The goal is to ensure that the biodiversity of the planet is preserved while people continue to eat delicious and healthy foods. This paper will examine Lancet’s EAT recommendations, compare this diet to personal eating habits, and discuss whether modifications can be made.
My current diet is different from the EAT recommendations provided by Lancet.
Firstly, my diet mostly consists of prepackaged or takeout foods, although I add fruits to my daily food intake. However, I do not consume a lot of vegetables, nuts, and legumes, as recommended in the EAT article. Also, EAT recommendations emphasize the need to limit the consumption of red meat and dairy products, which I typically consume as well (“EAT-Lancet Commission Brief for Everyone”). I am accustomed to having dairy products, especially milk and yogurt, on a daily, and based on the EAT recommendations, and I should limit this consumption to smaller portions.
It would be difficult to modify my diet to match the EAT-Lancet recommendations. Mainly, this is because I would need to change my eating habits, meaning I would need to get used to eating and shopping for foods that are different from what I consume daily. Additionally, with the EAT diet, many of the products need to be cooked or prepared; for example, vegetables taste better if they are in a salad, which would require more time for preparation. Currently, I do not have much free time to dedicate to preparing food, which creates a challenge for me if I want a balanced and environmentally friendly diet. However, I could shop for vegetables that are already slides or buy salads and healthier foods from the places I already order from or shop at, which would make it easier to integrate these products into my diet.
One aspect that I can easily modify is my shopping habits since I often tend to buy too many fresh products that I do not eat before they perish, and thus I have to throw these away. According to Lancet, with food, “the amounts wasted or lost have major impacts on human health and environmental sustainability.” Hence, I need to pay more attention to the way I shop for fresh produce to minimize waste, which I can achieve by shopping more often but buying less produce to ensure that perishable items are eaten in time.
Moreover, this article emphasizes the impact of food on one’s health, especially due to the increasing cases of obesity in developed states. In parallel to this, many people, and children, in particular, experience acute hunger on a daily basis (Lancet). This terrific contrast prompts me to change my eating habits and ensure that I only buy the foods I can consume to ensure that there is no waste and harm to the environment. In general, this article has prompted me to rethink my eating habits and my approach to food consumption and to make small modifications that will be helpful both for my health and for the well-being of the environment. In summary, my current diet is very different from the recommendations provided by Lancet, and there are several challenges linked to modifying it to suit these recommendations.