Health journalist, Julia Belluz, and nutrition and metabolism scientist, Kevin Hall, discuss the myths about nutrition to deliver a comprehensive book on food, diet, metabolism and healthy eating.

This book claims to help eaters navigate wide-ranging, confusing and contradictory advice over healthy and sustainable diets. It claims to minimize misuse of goodwill by providing scientifically untrained readers with the tools to make the best choices for themselves and the planet.  

This study integrated nutrition in the assessment of environmental sustainability in 559 food products across various categories. The researchers argue that the results demonstrate the model’s effectiveness in appraising food products based on environmental performance and nutrient composition.

After five decades in the field of nutrition, Dr. Marion Nestle thought she had seen it all. Then came “Make America Healthy Again.”

A leaked document shows that vested interests may have been behind a “mud-slinging” PR campaign to discredit a landmark environment study, the Eat Lancet study in 2019, according to an investigation in the Guardian and DeSmog. 

Researchers built a dataset providing the energy, nutritional and monetary cost of 20 food categories in France, and contrasted it with the environmental impacts. Legumes, potatoes and whole grains were less expensive and less impactful whereas meats were most impactful and expensive. Dairy and eggs had intermediate costs and impact. 

Authors developed a model that identified food combinations for environmental and nutritional goals. Using US-specific data of 2,500 food items, various diets offer 700 minutes of healthy life gained per week while reducing climate impacts by a factor of seven. 

The EAT-Lancet’s planetary health diet, particularly its meat reduction approach, received criticism for the plant-forward diet recommendations and potential micronutrient shortfalls. This study responds to this debate and provides recommendations that address the shortfalls. 

This report by the Food and Land Use Coalition highlights that 51% of China’s agricultural emissions could be mitigated with the widespread adoption of healthy and sustainable diets and 11 million deaths per year could be prevented globally if the EAT-Lancet planetary health diet was fully adopted.