🍏 "Can We Eat Right and Still Save the Planet?"

Podcast’s Essential Bites:

[16:08] MN: "There's 4,000 calories available per capita in the food supply [in the US]. That's twice as much as what the country needs, on average. [...] Food companies are not social service agencies and they're not public health agencies. [...] The entire system is set up to get people to eat more food, not less. Because, eat food, not too much, mostly plants is terrible for business."

[19:23] MN: "To me the most important public health nutrition problem in the United States today [...] is that 74% of American adults are overweight or obese. And therefore at higher risk of all of [a lot of] diseases. And we don't have a [proper] health care system in this country."

[24:52] MN: "The diet that's [...] pretty much consensus believed to be best for health is also a diet that's best for the planet. And that's to eat food, not too much, mostly plants. [...] If you're going to do dietary advice, you advise people to eat unprocessed foods as much as possible or minimally processed foods, make sure they eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, eat less meat is implied in that, and not eat too many calories. [...] Why can't people eat that way? Well, first of all, people love processed foods, and they love meat. And meat has become an American icon. If you advise eating less meat, that's un-American and you'll hear from the beef industry as well."

[27:40] MN: "Mostly plants doesn't mean exclusively plants. [...] It [is] really important for people in developing countries who are on very, very low calorie diets to have some animal products in their diet, because they would be much better nutritionally. [...] Most Americans are not nutritionally deprived. [...] We don't need meat for the nutrients, but a little meat goes a long way."

[35:35] MN: "We have a system in which the healthiest foods are perceived as the most expensive, and in fact, are the most expensive. And unless we do something about that, [...] we're not going to have a diet that's healthier for people and the planet. [...] What the subsidies do is to cause overproduction. [...] The subsidies go to corn, soybeans, sugar beets, those kinds of things that encourage farmers to grow more of them. And often to grow them in places that are climate inappropriate. They shouldn't be growing those things where they're growing them, but they get more subsidies if they do."

[43:56] MN: "We're going to have to redistribute food, because we've got [an extra] 2,000 calories a day in the United States [per person]."

Rating: ⭐⭐⭐

Additional Links:
Article: "Climate-friendlier meat just got a step closer to your plate" (Canary MEdia, 2022)

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