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The EAT–Lancet Commission on Diet, Healthspan, and Sustainability

Human health, diet, and environmental sustainability are prevailing concerns that share many common uncertainties. Fulfilling the nutritional needs of a growing population while limiting environmental degradation is a critical challenge that requires global collaboration and commitment. Current food systems, in addition to supporting unhealthy diets and practices, greatly impact the environment, leading to climate change, biodiversity loss, freshwater misuse, interference with the global nitrogen and phosphorus cycles, and land-system change. Current global food systems are simply unable to provide the population of ~7.7 billion with healthy diets while also achieving environmental sustainability.

The EAT-Lancet Commission brings together scientists and experts from the diverse fields of human health, agriculture, political sciences, and environmental sustainability in an effort to establish global targets for healthy diets and sustainable food production. Using the best scientific evidence available, the Commission seeks a global transformation of food systemsthat will help to achieve the goals set forth in the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris Agreement. The SDGs are global goals reduce hunger and improve nutrition. The Paris Agreement sets a budget on greenhouse gas emissions to keep the global mean temperature increase to less than 2°C.

The EAT-Lancet Commission has quantitatively characterized a universal healthy reference diet that will positively impact both human health and the environment. This healthy reference diet consists predominantly of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, and unsaturated oils; includes a low to moderate amount of seafood and poultry; and includes no or little red meat, processed meat, added sugar, refined grains, and starchy vegetables. The commission has also rendered scientific boundaries that will aid in the reduction of environmental degradation caused by food production at all scales.

At OFAS, we have spent over 25 years studying how a low-methionine diet improves lifespan and healthspan. This diet consists primarily of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, and legumes and contains limited quantities of meats, seafood, and poultry—much like the the EAT-Lancet Commission’s healthy reference diet. Thus, a low methionine diet not only provides benefit to an individual’s health but also promotes a sustainable environment.

The EAT-Lancet Commission proposes five strategies to achieve the “Great Food Transformation”. 1. Seek international and national commitment to shift towards healthy diets 2. Reorient agricultural priorities from producing large quantities of food to producing healthy food 3. Sustainably intensify food production, generating high-quality output 4. Strong and coordinated governance of land and oceans 5. At least halve food loss and waste, in line with global SDGs

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Willett, W., Rockström, J., Loken, B., Springmann, M., et.al. 2019. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. EAT-Lancet EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4

Ables, G.P., and Johnson, J.E. (2017). Pleiotropic responses to methionine restriction. Exp Gerontol 94, 83-88.

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