It will not only be the (hoped for) political choices of the world‘s greats that will change the fate of the world, but also what each of us chooses to bring to the table, every day. The responsibility we assume towards ourselves and the Earth was discussed during the 2021 edition of Tempo della Salute, in a meeting entitled, not surprisingly, ‘Food that helps health and the planet’: in front of a large audience they discussed it Eliana Liotta, journalist and author of the Smart Tips column on Corriere Salute, Gilda Gastaldi, president of the San Donato Group Foundation which promotes the EAT Project – sustainable food, e Massimo Tavoni, lecturer in economics of climate change at the School of Management of the Politecnico di Milano.
Food will save us
The starting point for the discussion arose from Liotta’s book «The food that will save us», published by Nave di Teseo, in which a ‘fork revolution’ is hoped for for a true ecological transition. “One third of greenhouse gas emissions depend on what we eat,” Liotta explains. “Furthermore, food that is ‘kind’ to the planet is also good for us: it is a small revolution that everyone can make, by choosing one of the five intelligent and sustainable food models proposed: the Mediterranean diet, in which half of the dish is composed of vegetables and the rest of cereals and proteins, but bringing the meat to the table once a week; the climatic carnivorous diet, in which you avoid the meat of ruminants that they are among the main producers of methane; the pescetarian diet which excludes meat but not fish, the vegetarian or finally the vegan, which is not for everyone. However, if we all followed it, polluting emissions would be halved in a short time ».
Diet and pollution
What we eat has a much more direct effect on the climate than we think, as Tavoni explains: “Deforestation, carried out above all to have land to devote to agriculture and livestock, involves a notable increase in gas greenhouse like CO2 but it also has a lesser known and equally negative impact on gases such as methane, which is largely derived from ruminant farming, and nitrogen dioxide from fertilizers. In particular, methane is something on which we could act quickly and incisively by modifying the diet: carbon dioxide has a very long stay in the atmosphere, so changes are seen in the long term, methane instead remains ‘only’ eight years. and therefore by modifying food choices and production techniques, also thanks to new technologies, in a short time we could really contain the rise in temperatures ».
The EAT project
Change is in our hands, therefore, for ourselves and for the world; to favor it and make it really possible, it is necessary to invest in the new generations and that is why in 2009 the EAT project of the San Donato Group Foundation. “We have decided to enter schools, teaching second and third grade children what healthy eating is, after the reports of our nutritionists of an increasing number of cases of hypertension, obesity and similar problems already in children”, says Gastaldi. “After a year of bi-weekly meetings, we saw all the health parameters of the children improve, so we repeated and expanded these experiences, involving the parents and then also carrying out an experiment ‘on the contrary’ in Kenya: we donated one hectare of land and two cows to a community, taught the principles of healthy eating and saw that in one year the children and their families were less underweight and malnourished. Food awareness is built with education and is sustainable and healthy, but without sacrificing taste: during the lockdown was born EAT for Cracco, in collaboration with chef Carlo Cracco, with whom we have created balanced dishes, healthy but rich in taste ».
The smart diet
In short, eating healthy is a choice that anyone can make, immediately, without giving up the joy of food and aware of making an ethical and intelligent choice, as Liotta points out: “A sustainable and ‘smart’ diet does not involve the exploitation of the planet’s resources and is attentive to waste: it is terrible that we still throw away 30 percent of food, it would be enough to be more careful when we shop at the supermarket and not give in to the 3 x 2 sirens, ask for a half portion at the restaurant, arrange food wisely in the fridge. Small good gestures for the world and for us: one mainly vegetable diet, more sustainable for the planet, is also a diet that takes care of the bacteria in our intestines, for example, and which in this way increases our immune defenses, helping to protect us also from SARS-CoV-2, along with vaccines and masks »Concludes Liotta.
November 6, 2021 (change November 6, 2021 | 16:21)
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