Have you heard about healthy, sustainable eating?
For a long time, the idea of sustainable eating was associated with going without. We had to give up flavour and pleasure at the table in order to follow rather uninspiring rules and eat food we were not used to. That was the era when the first plant proteins, tofu among them, became fashionable and were used excessively and without much imagination.
Today, though, with a great deal of research and the involvement of nutritionists and producers, sustainable eating is possible without giving up what we love, and in a way that protects the environment. After all, we are what we eat, and food has a direct bearing on our weight, our physical health and even our mental health.
But how should we think about food sustainability? What should we eat? Where do we find it?
The subject is not new by any means, but nor is it one that gets discussed a great deal, so questions like these are natural. The aim of this article is to answer them and to explain what sustainable, healthy eating actually is.
What is sustainable eating?
It is a broad concept, and it involves understanding the impact food has on the environment before it reaches our plate.
Sustainable eating takes several things into account:
- the conditions of production, with fair pay for the people who work in it;
- respect for the environment, with less use of agrochemicals;
- animal welfare is fundamental, ensuring a balanced diet and avoiding suffering;
- transport, reducing the use of fossil fuels.
When we buy food we should always ask: “Does this harm the soil?”, “Does it use excessive water for irrigation?”, “Where was it grown?”, “Do the people who grew it have decent working conditions?”, “How is it preserved?”
Thinking about sustainable eating is extremely necessary, because a range of studies show that the way we produce and consume food is deeply harmful and wrong. If we change nothing, by 2050 there may not be the natural resources needed to feed the whole population. Sir David Attenborough explains exactly what is happening in his Netflix documentary, “A Life on Our Planet”. Well worth watching.
So sustainable eating is about removing or reducing some foods and increasing and prioritising others, with our health and the natural resources used both in mind. Beyond that it brings nothing but benefits, as you will see later in this article.
The relationship between producer and consumer, short food supply chains
One of the things we should try to find out about the food that reaches our plate is the journey it has made. This is about short food supply chains, which means shortening the distances and the number of middlemen between producer and consumer. It is an idea already developing in various places, including some Portuguese municipalities.
The goal is to encourage consumers to take charge of their food choices and so opt for local production, which means better pay and more economic activity, as well as fewer emissions from transport.
That opens up the possibility of getting quality food to everyone, in all sorts of places: schools, hospitals, care homes and every household.
Is sustainable eating only vegetarian?
The answer is simple: no. It is possible to eat in a way that takes all the sustainability concerns into account without being vegetarian or vegan.
Of course, eating mostly “plant-based” does matter a great deal, since we then eat more seasonal food which, because of how it is produced, has less environmental impact than meat, for instance. But that does not mean you have to be vegetarian or vegan to eat sustainably and healthily.
What is very important, though, is reducing how much meat we eat, adjusting the amount of animal protein we consume, which generally goes far beyond what a healthy life requires and overloads production, resulting in waste, more carbon emissions and more toxic products in the soil. Beyond that, respect for animals in production is fundamental.
How do you eat fish and meat consciously?
With meat, it matters that you vary the cuts. A whole animal is slaughtered so that we can have a piece of it on our plate. It is important to learn to eat every part of the animal so that the less popular parts are not wasted. There are no higher-quality parts; each one has its own right way of being cooked.
Overfishing also has a major impact on our oceans. Support sustainable fishing, where fish and seafood are caught in line with the law and cause less harm to the local fishermen who depend on it to make a living.
Choose local fish, native to the coast, and avoid endangered species. Remember that fresh fish is cheaper and, on top of that, needs no plastic packaging, cuts transport emissions and tastes better. Finally, respect the fish’s growth cycle. Do not buy “baby” fish, since they have not yet had time to breed and the natural reproductive chain is broken.
How do you shop for sustainable eating?
Next time you go shopping, take sustainability with you on the list. You will see how easy it is. Here are some tips:
- Buy local, and favour producers nearby;
- Choose organic products wherever possible, and favour things you can buy loose;
- Care about a fair price, not only about what is cheap;
- Buy only what you will eat; planning the week’s recipes in advance helps you buy the essentials, and not going shopping hungry is another important factor;
- Avoid waste, and use up what went into the fridge and the house first;
- Avoid buying things wrapped in plastic; favour recyclable packaging or reusable bags and, wherever you can, use no packaging at all. Fruit and vegetables come packaged by nature, after all, not using plastic bags to bring them home is already a big step.
The benefits of sustainable eating
Sustainable eating necessarily ends up being healthy eating, because you eat more natural food without preservatives or other chemicals.
So what are some of the benefits?
1. Cholesterol control
The foods prioritised in sustainable eating can help keep cholesterol levels under control. Cholesterol levels rise, for instance, from eating too much red meat or from the way some foods are prepared.
2. Preventing and controlling diabetes
Type 2 diabetes is a chronic disease brought on by some people’s way of living, with a direct link to diet through heavily processed foods that are high in sugar, for example.
Within a sustainable eating routine, the ingredients prioritised help prevent diabetes. If you already have the condition, those same foods also help control insulin.
3. Better digestion
Dairy and animal proteins tend to cause intestinal discomfort. You know those days when something does not seem to have agreed with your stomach? That happens because we eat foods that are naturally hard to digest.
Eating with sustainability and health in mind, you will quickly feel an improvement in digestion, helping regulate the gut and even your mood.
4. It helps with anxiety
It is scientifically established that heavily processed foods can raise anxiety levels.
The ideal is a balanced diet with as much healthy, natural food as possible, as far from industrial processing as you can get.
5. Environmental advantages
Of course I cannot leave out the environmental and even social benefits that sustainable eating brings with it. On that list:
- Conserving and protecting natural resources;
- Efficient use of natural resources;
- Lower carbon emissions;
- Better economic distribution to small farmers and local traders;
- Less waste;
- Less packaging used and therefore less rubbish;
- Sustainable use of water.
As a consequence of all these benefits, sustainable eating gives us a longer, healthier life.
Brands for sustainable eating
Some companies, entrepreneurs and brands have already grasped how important it is to produce food more sustainably. So here are a few brands worth paying attention to:
BeatRoot
A Portuguese brand of frozen vegan products made from 100% natural ingredients.
They are also zero carbon products, meaning the brand tries to cut carbon emissions across its processes as far as possible and offsets the rest by planting native trees in Portugal.
You can buy Beatroot products on the company’s website or in Celeiro shops. As well as selling products, the brand also runs workshops and offers consultancy to restaurants. And they have a blog with recipes good enough to cry over.
Carne D’Erva
This brand has built its positioning and its sales around awareness in eating. Carne D’Erva believes that the way to say meat is good is if it is the result of care across every level of production, from pasture to plate. That takes in slaughter, ageing, cutting, packaging and delivery.
The cattle are 100% Portuguese, rich in vitamins and good fats, and feed on a range of fresh grasses which, through their growth and photosynthesis, absorb carbon from the air and offset the animals’ carbon emissions. Finally, the brand respects the animal’s natural growth process, with no additives, hormones or antibiotics.
Fruta Feia
Fruta Feia is a cooperative that aims to give a dignified end to the fruit wasted in fruit and vegetable production, getting it instead to consumers who do not judge quality by appearance.
“Beautiful people eat ugly fruit” is the motto of the cooperative, which through selling boxes helps tackle a market inefficiency and change patterns of consumption. In doing so they are tackling food waste, creating value for producers and cutting the unnecessary waste of the resources used to grow it (water, energy and farmland).
Alimenta quem o Alimenta
A platform developed by Portugal’s Ministry of Agriculture that lets local farmers publicise their produce and boxes.
The platform groups producers by municipality, making it easier for consumers to find growers in their area, feeding into short food supply chains, helping support the local economy and reducing the ecological footprint.
Too Good To Go
An app that helps tackle food waste by connecting consumers with surplus food from restaurants, hotels, supermarkets and businesses.
Too Good To Go promotes conscious consumption and reduces impact on the environment. The app is a success in many European countries and, in Portugal, has countless restaurants, bakeries and even companies such as Nestlé and Danone registered on its platform.
With this article you have all the explanations and tips you need to move towards healthy eating. It is easy to see that eating well and thinking about the environment has never been so easy, so simple or so tasty.
Have I convinced you to put sustainability on your plate?
