FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET was produced by a food system solutions activator featuring nutrition and climate change experts from across the globe. They looked at diets in four regions, each with a distinct lens: Nordic Countries (sustainability), Brazil (local and whole foods instead of ultra-processed foods); Canada (plant-forward), and Indonesia (developing countries, children).
Instead of using a prescriptive approach, and offering a single perspective for global diets that could be translated to fit the needs of individual countries, the group developed a country-first perspective, recognizing that each country has distinct cultural, economic, historical, and agricultural capacities to feed itself.
From that starting point, the group created FOOD CHOICES FOR A HEALTHY PLANET, an online game designed to bring greater awareness to the impacts these personal food choices have on not only our own health but also the environment and the cultures in which we live.
In 2020 the group will expand to feature additional countries and explore greater customization to allow people to see how their own dietary choices can have far-reaching implications.
Canada is a large, diverse country with a population of 37 million people, most of whom live in urban centers. As one of the most multicultural countries in the world, Canadians come from all across the globe, and bring along their unique habits and attitudes towards food. While some would say that traditional Canadian foods are things like maple syrup and poutine (french fries with cheese curds and gravy from Quebec), the food stories of Canadians are as wide and diverse as Canada’s geography.
In 2019, Canada released what some would describe as a revolutionary new food guide, which promotes greater consumption of vegetables and fruits, whole grains, and plant-based proteins and a decrease in consumption of highly processed foods. The food guide also emphasizes a holistic approach to eating – enjoying eating, sharing meals with others, and cooking whenever possible. If Canadians were to adapt these recommendations, this would be a major shift in dietary habits: the vast majority of Canadians currently eat unhealthy diets, made up largely of ‘ultra-processed’ foods that have ill effects on both our health and the health of the planet.
These new dietary guidelines are a good reminder that our dietary choices have multiple impacts – not only on our health, but impacts related to sustainability and climate change, the environment, and our food culture and traditions. Canadians make hundreds of food decisions every day within environments where healthy, sustainable choices can be difficult. What are some of the ways we can nurture healthy food choices among Canadians that can support human and planetary health? Let’s see!
Imagine climatic conditions with drastic seasonal changes; long winters with frost and snow combined with long and warm summer days. Only the most well adapted and resilient of plants and wild animals survive. These are the conditions facing the farmers in the Nordic region (Finland, Sweden, Denmark, Norway and Iceland). This may explain why the trendy green kale is especially popular in the Nordics; it’s not only sustainable, relatively cheap, packed with vitamins… it’s also possible to grow in conditions as low as −20°C, thus convincing us that it’s worthy of the name superfood. Kale aside, most of the Nordic diet is made up of potatoes, root vegetables, fish and shellfish, meat, berries, fruits (such as apples and pears). This region, and its five countries, has a total population of 26 million inhabitants.
While inspired by global influences, the modern Nordic food culture has in the past decade seen somewhat of a revival in the use of traditional ingredients and preservation techniques. The New Nordic Kitchen Manifesto was launched in 2004 and included 10 basic principles. Predominantly plant-based and locally sourced, the modern new Nordic diet encourages more sustainable production. Building on the momentum created by the manifesto in 2004 by a group of chefs, new food policies and food culture projects have been implemented all around the Nordic region. In this way, the food culture change that started in the gastronomy sector has spread to school canteens, workplaces and home-cooks. In 2018, the WHO launched a high-profile report showing that the New Nordic diet is as healthy and sustainable as the Mediterranean diet. Compared to an average Western diet, the new Nordic diet contains less sugar and fat but twice the fiber and seafood.
The joint work in the area of nutrition is one of the most successful parts of the Nordic intergovernmental collaboration, with the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (NNR) being the flagship document guiding the countries. It helps establish agreement on the facts, which in turn help the individual countries craft robust and ambitious national dietary guidelines. In the latest version released in 2014, the NNR included, as one of the first dietary guidelines globally, a chapter on sustainability. It discussed the way the Nordic diet should be composed to take into account not only human health, but also planetary health and climate. The upcoming edition of the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, to be released in 2022, will feature sustainability much more prominently. Recent scientific findings on healthy and sustainable diets will be carefully reviewed in the process of making recommendations.
There are increasing concerns among Nordic citizens about the sustainability impacts of their dietary choices. Price is still a major determinant of food choices, but wellbeing, health and sustainability are rising as top priorities for consumers. Arguments around the environmental, climate, health and animal welfare impacts of diets are the main motivations behind a growing movement for more plant-based diets. Roughly 30% of Nordic millennials choose to reduce their meat consumption for these reasons.
Brazil is a middle-income country from the Latin America region. In the year 2020, its population is around 211 million people.
Brazil is a huge country with five main regions (South, Southeast, Mid-West, North, and Northeast). In the Brazilian context, buying and cooking with fresh foods is still less expensive than buying/eating ultra-processed foods. For this reason, most of the Brazilian population in all regions still consume the traditional Brazilian diet, usually made up of rice and beans, roots and tubers, vegetables, meat, fresh fruits, and other unprocessed and minimally processed foods. However, the last few decades this has started to change. The prices of some fresh and minimally processed foods, like vegetables and meat, are increasing while the prices of ultra-processed foods, like sausages and confectioneries, are decreasing. In addition, Brazilians are eating away from home more often.
In 2014, Brazil released a new food guide with this golden rule: “always prefer natural or minimally processed foods and freshly made dishes and meals to ultra-processed foods.” In other words, opt for water, milk, and fruits instead of soft drinks, dairy drinks, and biscuits; do not replace freshly prepared dishes with products that do not require culinary preparation; and stick to homemade desserts, avoiding industrialized ones. In 2019, the Brazilian Ministry of Health published their new Dietary Guidelines for children under 2 years, reinforcing the importance of valuing the Brazilian traditional diets and avoiding ultra-processed foods to protect and promote Brazilian children’s health.
Both the Brazilian guidelines are aligned about the necessity to promote and protect people and planet health. This can be achieved by promoting healthy and sustainable food systems and facilitating people’s better food choices.
Indonesia is a diverse country made up of over 17,000 islands and 250 million people. It is considered a middle-income country, but for a large part of the population, the dietary patterns remain far more typical of a low-income country with high intake of a single staple (rice) and low overall animal-source food (especially meat) consumption; however this is not so for all Indonesians. Indonesia suffers from a double burden of undernutrition and overweight/obesity (with the latter mainly a problem of the rich at present). In 2014 36% of children under 5 years old were stunted; 8.4% of all Indonesians lived under the international poverty line, and 7.6% consumed below minimum level of dietary energy requirement. At the same time, the prevalence of adults who are overweight doubled from 2007 (12%) to 2014 (25%). In 2016, 73% of all deaths were a result of non communicable diseases (NCDs) (35% cardiovascular, 12% cancer, 6% diabetes). People who have suffered undernutrition during childhood are at higher risk of NCDs, including diabetes, heart disease, cancer and obesity, later in life.
Indonesia has a strong set of national Dietary Guidelines; yet the country’s development strategy is largely focused on rice, maize, sugar, and soy. Its food security program provides rice (15 kg/household/month) to poor families. As Indonesia continues to develop and grow, there is an opportunity to provide all Indonesians access to diverse and high quality foods within a sustainable food system and to encourage them to make healthy choices.
From the Healthy Diets from Sustainable Production: Indonesia report: “Dietary changes that could benefit both health and environment include the substitution of some refined rice by a wider variety of starchy or non-starchy foods; a higher intake of fruits and vegetables that have traditionally been grown in Indonesia; and higher intakes of fats and proteins among poorer people and undernourished children, coupled with a curbing of added sugars and oils in processed foods. A further priority is the promotion of sustainably produced animal foods from fish capture, aquaculture and land. All these changes would be best promoted by coordinated action across public sector spheres of agriculture, health, environment and industry.”
Dr. Lana Vanderlee’s research aims to design and evaluate population-level nutrition policies and interventions that address diet-related non-communicable diseases and environmental sustainability, to help inform Canadian and international policy decisions. She conducts applied research with global networks of investigators to evaluate the status and impact of government and food industry policies relating to food environments, like dietary guidelines, restrictions on marketing unhealthy foods to children, food labelling, efforts to reformulate the food supply, and sugary drink taxes.
Marie Persson is the Project Manager of the Nordic Food Policy Lab based at the Nordic Council of Ministers. Through action oriented policy labs and collaborations with international partners, we curate and help develop food policy tools and insights for health & sustainability.
With a background at a research network for food systems sustainability at Oxford University (Food Climate Research Network) and with my current work being focused on merging policy, culture and innovation for sustainble food, I’m interested in how we can bring together diverse fields of expertise to accelerate a transformation towards sustainable healthy diets.
I am passionate about working with food and food systems, as it is the place where so many if our challenges around human and planetary wellbeing converge. I am also interested in collaborations between science, art, design and policy, and in utilizing the power of storytelling. I helped create (and now sit on the board) of the non-profit Art & Science Initiative.
Currently a member of the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (Nupens/USP), deputy external affairs secretary at World Public Health Nutrition Association (WPHNA) and PhD candidate at the Preventive Medicine Program of the University of São Paulo Medical School (FMUSP). Maria Alvin has a master’s degree in Public Health and Graduation in Nutrition at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora (UFJF). Her work focuses on Nutritional Epidemiology, with emphasis on food environment and child obesity.
Carla Martins is currently a professor at the School of Public Health of the University of São Paulo (FSP/USP) and a researcher at the Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (NUPENS/USP). She worked as part of the team that developed the Dietary Guidelines for the Brazilian Population. Her work focuses on cooking and its impact on ultra-processed food consumption; and cooking as a tool for protection and promotion of human health and environmental sustainability.
Master candidate at the Preventive Medicine Program of the University of São Paulo Medical School (FMUSP). Currently member of Center for Epidemiological Research in Nutrition and Health (Nupens/USP). Had Graduation in Nutrition at University of Nove de Julho (UNINOVE) and Hospitality at University of São Francisco (USF). Her work focuses on Nutritional Epidemiology, with emphasis on ditribuition and trends of ultra-processed food consumption.
Christopher Gardner is a nutrition scientist and the Rehnborg Farquhar Professor of Medicine. For 26 years at Stanford he has studied what to consume and to avoid for optimal health, and how best to motivate individuals to achieve healthy dietary behaviors. He has served on many committees for organizations such as the American Heart Association and the American Diabetes Association, and has conducted and published dozens of human nutrition intervention trials. Current research interests including collaborating with chefs and dining operators as research partners in an effort to identify strategies to optimize the intersection of taste, health and environmental sustainability. Christopher teaches several food and nutrition classes, including an on-line course recently launched through the Stanford Center for Teaching and Learning.
Douglas is a taxonomist, filmmaker, photographer and writer specializing in impact storytelling in food and water. He has written and directed film series for PBS and HBO and Conde Naste. His stories and iconic photography about agriculture and food systems have appeared in thousands of pop up art shows, a concept pioneered by the Lexicon. Douglas is the author of SLOW: Life in a Tuscan Town, and Local: The New Face of Food & Farming in America. His photographs are held in museums and private collections around the world.
Douglas’ life with the creative arts is informed by his early life as a professional skateboarder. As a technical media pioneer, he has worked in Europe, China and the Middle East. As a taxonomist, his focus is the environment and he gleans inspiration from life on a farm as a husband, father and wrangler of goats. Douglas co-founded the Lexicon of Sustainability with Laura Howard-Gayeton in 2011. Together from a few old converted chicken barns they created Laloo’s goat’s milk ice cream, Rumplefarm Productions and the Lexicon of Sustainability
Zoe received her BA in Environmental Studies from Carleton College. She is passionate about sustainable food systems and she has worked as a farmer, event planner, marketer and organizer within the food realm. Zoe has been working with The Lexicon as a researcher and project coordinator for the last two years. She currently lives in the Driftless Area of Southwest Wisconsin, where she does graphic design work for her partners salami company, grows her own food, and makes art and writes essays that explore themes of place, impact and belonging.
Pier Giorgio Provenzano is The Lexicon’s Digital Producer and lead Animator and Video Editor. Based near Bristol, England, his projects include a short film series for PBS, music videos for Napster, a feature-length documentary for HBO, several animated shorts for Warner Brothers and Toyota, short films for Sustainable Food Trust, and GrowEatGather, which showcases British farmers and their role in producing good sustainable food.
Amine is a game programmer making games for over 13 years, on a wide range of platforms including consoles and mobile. With particular interest in the intersection between Art and Technology, Amine likes making content creation tools used by both creative and technical disciplines. His main hobby is long distance running.
Alina Miller is a freelance graphic designer who has a passion for illustrating, with a specialization in flat and isometric design using vector art. She began her freelance career in 2017, shortly after immigrating from Romania and making Chicago her second home. So far in her career, she has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from album covers and custom tattoos to company logos and t-shirt designs. Alina is always looking forward to exciting new challenges that exercise her creativity and broaden her technical skills.
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