Planetary health diet

To achieve this, it has defined new recommendations on the consumption of meat, dairy, and starchy vegetables, specifically red meat. The aims of this are:

• to lessen the impact of the meat and dairy industries on the environment,
• theoretically, to drastically decrease saturated fat and sugar intake from these food groups. Today's consumption of meat and dairy often exceeds nutritional recommendations.{{Cite web|date=2020-02-06|title=Plant-Rich Diets|url=https://drawdown.org/solutions/plant-rich-diets|access-date=2020-12-05|website=Project Drawdown|language=en}}

The planetary health diet recommendations have an optimal caloric intake and consist largely of a diversity of plant-based foods, and small amounts of animal source foods. They contain unsaturated rather than saturated fats, and limited amounts of refined grains, highly processed foods and added sugars.

class="wikitable" |+Scientific targets for a planetary health diet, with possible ranges, for an intake of 2500 kcal/day. !Food !Macronutrient intake (grams per day) (possible range) !Caloric intake (kcal per day) !Example !Comparison

Vegetables |300 (200–600) |78 | |

Dairy foods |250 (0–500) |153 |One cup of milk per day |

Whole grains |232 |811 | |

Fruits |200 (100–300) |126 | |

Tubers or Starchy vegetables |50 (0–100) |39 |Two medium-sized potatoes or servings of cassava per week |

Unsaturated oils |40 (20–80) |354 | |

Added sugars |31 |120 |Two tablespoons of honey per day |

Saturated oils |11.8 (0–11.8) |96 | |

Protein sources:

Legumes |75 (0–100) |284 | |

Nuts |50 (0–75) |291 | |

Chicken and other poultry |29 |62 |One boneless, skinless chicken thigh every other day or one slice of chicken lunch meat per day |

Fish |28 |40 | |

Beef, lamb and pork |14 |30 |One strip of bacon every other day or one medium-size hamburger per week |Twice the average per capita consumption in Asia, and the average amount of red meat eaten in Africa

Eggs |13 |19 |One egg every third day (e.g., poached, made into pancakes, etc.) |Half the egg consumption in Japan and China;{{Cite web|title=Countries That Consume the Most Eggs|url=https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/countries-that-consume-the-most-eggs.html|access-date=2020-12-04|website=WorldAtlas|date=16 July 2018|language=en-US}} six times the egg consumption in India{{Cite web|last=Anandan|first=Sanjevi|date=2019-08-23|title=Study: India's meat and egg consumption very low|url=https://www.deccanchronicle.com/nation/current-affairs/230819/study-indias-meat-and-egg-consumption-very-low.html|access-date=2020-12-04|website=Deccan Chronicle|language=en}}

There are also other recommendations on the amounts of fruit, vegetables, legumes, grains, and oil. This is because the diet is created around a total intake of 2,500 calories a day (to discourage overeating). But the main focus is on meat, eggs, dairy, and starchy vegetables. The EAT-Lancet Commission describes the planetary health diet as a "flexitarian diet, which is largely plant-based but can optionally include modest amounts of fish, meat and dairy foods."

The UK newspaper The Guardian{{Cite news |last=Carrington |first=Damian |date=2019-01-16 |title=New plant-focused diet would 'transform' planet's future, say scientists |language=en-GB |work=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jan/16/new-plant-focused-diet-would-transform-planets-future-say-scientists |access-date=2019-02-08 |issn=0261-3077}} and US news outlet CNN{{Cite web|url=https://www.cnn.com/2019/01/16/health/new-diet-to-save-lives-and-planet-health-study-intl/index.html|title=This diet could help save lives, and the planet|author=Nina Avramova|website=CNN|date=16 January 2019|access-date=2019-02-08}} have given the diet positive coverage.

Harry Harris, writing in New Statesman, was wary of claims that the diet could transform the world's food system, saying, “It seems churlish to keep placing the onus for climate change onto individual's [sic] behaviour, when we know that 100 companies are responsible for 71 per cent of global emissions."{{Cite web|url=https://www.newstatesman.com/politics/health/2019/01/why-planetary-health-diet-probably-won-t-save-world|title=Why a planetary health diet probably won't save the world|website=www.newstatesman.com|date=21 January 2019|language=en|access-date=2019-02-08}}

The World Health Organization withdrew its sponsorship of the EAT-Lancet event following criticism from Gian Lorenzo Cornado, Italy's representative to the Geneva international organizations. Cornado said that adopting one dietary approach for the whole planet would destroy traditional diets and cultural heritage, and that reducing meat and candy consumption would cause the loss of millions of jobs.{{cite journal |last1=Torjesen|first1=Ingrid |date=9 April 2019 |title= WHO pulls support from initiative promoting global move to plant based foods|url= https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1700|journal= BMJ|volume=365 |pages= l1700|doi=10.1136/bmj.l1700|pmid=30967377 |s2cid=106411182 |access-date=30 August 2019}}

In 2019, Francisco J. Zagmutt and colleagues challenged the planetary diet based on flaws in the methodology used for health estimates.{{cite journal|author=Zagmutt, Francisco J; Pouzou, Jane G; Costard, Solenne|year=2019|title=The EAT–Lancet Commission: a flawed approach?|journal=The Lancet|volume=394|issue=10204|pages=1140–1141|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31903-8|pmid=31571598|s2cid=203463607|doi-access=free}} However, as pointed out by Walter Willett, the three different methods that were used to estimate the number of preventable deaths among adults were published independently of the EAT-Lancet Commission with a detailed methodology.{{cite journal|author=Willett, Walter; Rockström, Johan; Loken, Brent|year=2019|title=The EAT–Lancet Commission: a flawed approach? – Authors' reply|journal=The Lancet|volume=394|issue=10204|pages=1141–1142|doi=10.1016/S0140-6736(19)31910-5|pmid=31571599|s2cid=203461418|doi-access=free}}

In 2025 it was revealed that a PR firm sponsored by the dairy and meat industry orchestrated journalists and influencers for negative coverage. These groups were briefed to frame the diet as "radical", "out of touch" and "hypocritical".{{Cite web |last=Carlile |first=Clare |date=2025-04-11 |title=Revealed: Meat Industry Behind Attacks on Flagship Climate-Friendly Diet Report |url=https://www.desmog.com/2025/04/10/meat-industry-red-flag-animal-agriculture-alliance-behind-attacks-flagship-climate-friendly-diet-report-eat-lancet/ |access-date=2025-04-11 |website=DeSmog |language=en-US}}

The cost of this diet is less than what some people spend now, and more than what other people can afford.

The planetary diet was challenged by Adegbola T. Adesogan and colleagues in 2020 who wrote that sustainability-oriented diet plans, such as the planetary diet, do not solve the problems of the women and children who are currently too poor to regularly eat meat, eggs, and dairy products, and whose health would benefit from introducing animal-source foods.{{cite journal|author=Adesogan, Adegbola T; Havelaar, Arie H; McKune, Sarah L; Eilitta, Marjatta; Dahl, Geoffrey, E.|year=2020|title=Animal source foods: Sustainability problem or malnutrition and sustainability solution? Perspective matters|journal=Global Food Security|volume=25|pages=100325|doi=10.1016/j.gfs.2019.100325|doi-access=free|bibcode=2020GlFS...2500325A }}

Researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute and Tufts University calculated that nearly 1.6 billion people, mostly located in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, could not afford the cost of the EAT-Lancet reference diet.{{cite journal|last1=Hirvonen|first1=Kalle|last2=Bai|first2=Yan|last3=Headey|first3=Derek|last4=Masters|first4=William A.|date=2019-11-08|title=Affordability of the EAT–Lancet reference diet: a global analysis|journal=The Lancet Global Health|volume=8|issue=1|pages=e59–e66|doi=10.1016/S2214-109X(19)30447-4|pmc=7024996|pmid=31708415}}[https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191107202600.htm "Intended to help human, planetary health, EAT-Lancet diet too costly for 1.6 billion people"]. ScienceDaily. Retrieved 28 October 2020.

A 2020 study found that the planetary diet is more affordable than the typical Australian diet.{{cite journal|author=Goulding, Tara; Lindberg, Rebecca; Russell, Catherine Georgina.|year=2020|title=The affordability of a healthy and sustainable diet: an Australian case study|journal=Nutrition Journal|volume=19|issue=19|pages=109|doi=10.1186/s12937-020-00606-z|pmid=32998734|pmc=7528590 |doi-access=free }}

A 2020 comparison study found that there are agreements between the planetary diet and the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans. The differences are in the recommended amounts of fruit, nuts, red meat, seeds, starchy vegetables and whole grains.{{cite journal|author=Blackstone, Nicole Tichenor; Conrad, Zach|year=2020|title=Comparing the Recommended Eating Patterns of the EAT-Lancet Commission and Dietary Guidelines for Americans: Implications for Sustainable Nutrition|journal=Current Developments in Nutrition|url=https://academic.oup.com/cdn/article/4/3/nzaa015/5722117|volume=4|issue=3|pages=nzaa015|doi=10.1093/cdn/nzaa015|pmid=32154501|pmc=7053404|doi-access=free}}

A 2020 comparison study of the average Indian diet with the planetary diet found that the average Indian diet is considered unhealthy because of excessive consumption of cereals and processed foods with not enough protein, fruits, and vegetables.{{cite journal|author=Sharma Manika; Kishore, Avinash, Kishore; Roy, Devesh; Joshi, Kuhu|year=2020|title=A comparison of the Indian diet with the EAT-Lancet reference diet|journal=BMC Public Health|url= |volume=20|issue=812|page=812|doi=10.1186/s12889-020-08951-8|pmid=32471408|pmc=7260780 |doi-access=free }}Manika Sharma, Avinash Kishore, Devesh Roy, Kuhu Joshi and Khiem Nguyen. (2020). [https://a4nh.cgiar.org/2020/07/28/indian-diets-fall-short-of-eat-lancet-reference-recommendations-for-human-and-planetary-health/ "Indian Diets Fall Short of Eat-Lancet Reference Recommendations for Human and Planetary Health"]. CGIAR Research Program on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health. Retrieved 22 November 2020.

• [https://eatforum.org/learn-and-discover/five-questions-on-eat-lancet/ Five Questions on EAT-Lancet]

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