The Planetary Health Diet

The new diet is “The Planetary Diet.” Emphasising a half plate of vegetables / fruit and then – oh – more vegetables (starchy vegetables) and plant sourced protein and unsaturated plant oils and whole grains, this is a bit of a nightmare to my mind. Mind you, this is almost the Mediterranean Diet, but not quite.

“It emphasises a plant-forward diet where whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes comprise a greater proportion of foods consumed,”

— The New Daily

It certainly is “plant-forward” – but they mention only plant-sourced protein and unsaturated plant oils but there is by now agreement that animal fats are also necessary for mental acuity. And there’s certainly a mixed message on the toxicity or otherwise of seed oils.

I’ve heard a lot of “diet advice” and diets published – and debunked or just sidelined – in their time. I even wrote a diet book myself, describing how I made a few changes to otherwise normal meals to give myself the best chance to avoid a fast-approaching prostate cancer. For me, it appears to have worked – twenty years have passed since the first signs appeared. But it may not work for others.

I’m still certain that the various fresh foods have the antioxidants and vitamins and minerals because you can find multiple resources online that all agree with each other – you can measure how much sodium there is in a gram of chicken breast, after all. You can measure the amounts of additive E102 or E621 in a processed food. And if the various laboratories all agree on the ratios, you be pretty sure about that too.

Short Article, Quick Conclusion

It’s 90% or more overlapping with the Mediterranean Diet. Try to avoid processed foods, cook with fresh ingredients, accept that you need a certain amount of animal-based protein, a certain amount of carbohydrates, and a lot of fibre which comes from vegetables. Avoid most seed oils and especially corn oil, canola oil, instead use animal fats and olive oil.

Don’t cut the other oils and foods out of your diet – enjoy a handful of potato crisps every now and then, use peanut oil sometimes, have a burger once a month. Try at least one dish you haven’t had before if you’re in a position to.

Food is more than energy – it’s nourishment, it feeds the body and the gut and the brain, and thus, your entire sense of wellbeing. Don’t put too much crap in there and you won’t feel quite as crappy. Here endeth the lesson…

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