The Planetary Health Diet looked at how to feed a world population of ten billion people in 2050 while protecting our planet. IMAGE: Sadheesh92 for Pixabay

Planetary Health Diet: 14 grams of meat per day allowed

While a vegan diet has become mainstream, there are alternatives. One of them is the Planetary Health Diet, which was developed in 2019 by an international group of experts as a science-based nutrition plan. It focuses on both physical health (avoiding diet-related diseases) and planetary health.

The Planetary Health Diet is not vegan – but it is based primarily on vegetables and legumes. Sugar, dairy, poultry, fish and meat are barely “allowed”.

Each day you’re allowed to eat about

• 300 grams of vegetables
• 200 grams of fruit
• 230 grams of grains
• 75 grams of legumes
• 50 grams of nuts
• 31 grams of sugar or sweeteners
• 40 grams of unsaturated fats
• 11 grams of saturated fat

Add to this

• 250 grams of dairy
• 13 grams of eggs
• 29 grams of poultry
• 28 grams of fish
• 14 grams of meat

How does the Planetary app work in a self-test?

First, download the Android or IOS version of the Planetary app to your smartphone. Here you will need to enter some information about yourself, weight, height, fitness level, etc., to determine your calorie needs. Now you have to enter every day what you have eaten/drunk. The lists are clear and there are actually all kinds of food to choose from (even ready-made meals like pizza). After your input, you immediately get an evaluation with smileys. So you can see at a glance in which areas you are good.

My problem with this app: you have to enter everything in grams. Let’s say you ate a cheese sandwich. How many grams of bread and how many grams of cheese? How many grams of lentils were in the soup and how many carrots and potatoes?

Bottom line: I’ve tested the Planetary app for exactly one day, and frankly, I don’t find it useful. However, it did show me one thing: If you want to eat healthy and environmentally friendly, that means almost no meat, eggs, and sugar (a quarter of a chocolate bar is enough to move the smiley towards the critical line). To put it simply, you’re only allowed to eat one egg, one hamburger, and one piece of chocolate one day a week, and you have to be well-disciplined the rest of the week.

One criticism of the Planetay Health Diet is that it doesn’t consider whether things are local and organic. However, as mentioned above, I see the diet more as an eye-opener to living a little healthier and more sustainably.