Sustainable eating is good for your health, supports local communities, and helps protect our environment.
Food is a big part of our lives. It keeps us fuelled and sustained, but the choices we make about what we eat can also affect our health and the environment.
Eating sustainably doesn’t mean you have to go vegan or vegetarian. Simply adding more vegetables to your meals, or not eating meat a couple of times a week, choosing locally sourced ingredients, and being mindful of the carbon footprint of your food can make a big difference. Research shows that adopting a sustainable diet could help prevent 11 million premature adult deaths annually according to the EAT-Lancet Commission.
A healthier diet brings many benefits, better mental and physical health, a lower impact on the planet, and helps support stronger food systems. Choosing organic produce and locally grown food not only improves wellbeing, it also supports local businesses, farmers and the economy.
Challenges Of Eating Healthily and Sustainably
Before looking at how to eat in a healthier and more sustainable way, it’s important to understand the challenges we all face. Many factors influence our diet, including:
Cost: Healthier food can be up to three times more expensive than unhealthy products. While there are ways to eat well for less, things like cooking skills and the rising cost of living can make it harder.
Availability: Healthier options aren’t always easy to find. Processed foods are everywhere, while organic or locally sourced choices can be more costly and harder to find.
Appeal: 35 Per Cent of food advertising in the UK promotes ‘unhealthy’ options. The constant exposure can influence our cravings and choices making it difficult to choose healthier options. Advertising also plays on our minds to make us crave unhealthier foods more often than healthier.
Busy lives: Balancing work, family, and daily responsibilities can make it difficult to maintain a healthy and sustainable diet. When life gets hectic, we often reach for quick and convenient options which aren’t always the healthiest. It’s important look after yourself and focus on balance and choose healthier options.
So how can we make a change?
Cost: Knowing what to buy can influence the cost of your shopping. There is an overwhelming stock of foods listed as ‘healthy’ to profit off those looking for healthier options. Knowing what foods are healthy, what recipes to follow, how to balance your plate and using this knowledge to build a shopping list will help make healthy eating budgeting more cost effective for you. The NHS shared tips for healthy eating.
Availability: Research is key to help find your local farmers markets, shops, grocers, and butchers to get good quality and fair priced products that are good for your health, support local suppliers, and our environment. Supermarkets may sell UK farmed products however they are massed produced, and in some cases, they charge a premium for this, and the farmers don’t always receive a fair price for their products.
Appeal: It is important to tame cravings, for example by making sure that your plate has healthy options that help curve cravings, or that you have a full belly when shopping, so you don’t feel as tempted by junk food or items that you do not need. This will help you avoid unnecessary spending’s and reduce food waste.
Busy lives: Whilst there is not much you can do to slow down life, you can make your meals easier to prepare. Creating a weekly meal plan and prepping your dishes days before can make things a little easier, especially on those days when energy and motivation are a bit harder to find. BBC Good Food share top tips on how to get started.
As a society it is important to educate and learn what a healthy diet is. Getting familiar with what foods fit better in what parts of your diet. It is also important that we tackle the judgement and social outlook on what healthy food is. Sustainability is a big part; food that is produced sustainably is more often than not organic and natural compared to processed foods which are farmed without environmental factors in mind.
To make informed choices on what you buy and eat, look out for the certified labelling on food, for example Organic, Non GMO (non-genetically modified organism), Red Tractor, Fair Trade, Rainforest Alliance and many others. The BBC good food have a guide that lists some useful information on certifications along with some pros and cons of each of the labelling and what to watch out for.
Sustainable food production can use less pesticides and chemicals which in turn reduces pollution in the air, food, and land. This reduces the chemicals that we put into our bodies and results in a healthier life. This doesn’t end with veggies either, these techniques are used to grow feed for animals which can impact the quality of meat that is provided from these farms too.
Healthy meals for you and the planet.
To improve your eating habits for you and our planet, consider incorporating more plants into your meal plans. Plan and prepare meals, make the most of leftovers, choose seasonal and local produce where possible. You also could consider regularly having a fully plant-based meal, one common tradition that some choose to do is ‘Meatless Mondays’, reducing emissions and promoting a balanced diet.
What small step will you take today to improve your diet, and reduce your impact on the environment?
Embracing a healthier, more sustainable diet is a journey of small, meaningful changes. By incorporating more plant-based meals, supporting local food systems, and being mindful of our choices, we can positively impact our health, the environment, and our communities. It’s not about achieving perfection overnight but taking steps toward a better future; one meal at a time.
