Youth Incorporated Magazine

As the name goes, a climatarian diet is a climate-friendly diet. This new kind of diet might sound a bit bizarre to us since we fail to identify our food consumption’s impact on climate. Whatever we consume has direct and indirect effects on the climate, environment and the earth. 

The climatarian diet is all about mindful consumption. It encourages the consumption of food items which are climate-friendly in nature. For example, consuming more of natural or plant-based foods is suggested under this diet as plants account for lesser carbon footprint as compared to meat or dairy-based food. 

To cultivate crops, massive lands are converted into agricultural fields which leads to the destruction of forests and multiple ecosystems. This produces a quarter of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions. Further, the processing of meat and dairy products accounts for around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions. 

Did you know that beef needs about 15,000 litres of water per kilo? Similarly, vegetarian foods like avocados and almonds also account for a huge water footprint. 

A climatarian diet expects its followers, also called, climatarians to eliminate consumptions of foods that use up excessive natural resources of the planet like land and water, contribute to pollution, produce green house gases, or even use non-biodegradable packaging material. 

The diet is, however, not just to improve the earth’s health but our health as well. Asking to cut down foods such as meat, the diet also helps in keeping individuals healthy. Consuming excessive meat, especially red meat, is linked with many health conditions such as high blood pressure, cholesterol, heart diseases and even cancer. Similar, a strict vegan diet can also put individuals at a high risk of deficiency of nutrients and proteins. A climatarian diet thus seeks to strike a balance in one’s food consumption habits by also ensuring the climate stays protected.  

There are chances that this diet must have tempted you to give it a try or maybe not. However, it must have definitely got you interested in finding out how exactly to carry it out. Let’s take a look: 

Consume locally cultivated and produced food: 

The best example of this would be avocado. Although the fruit is now being grown in some states of India for purely commercial purposes, it is originally not an Indian fruit. It is mainly imported from America. Since the fruit is transported to long distances, it leads to high carbon footprint globally. Further, due to the limited supply, the cost of it is also high. Besides, even though the fruit is independently rich in nutrients, it might be of less health benefits to the Indians given the country’s different climatic condition. 

Thus, it is best to consume more of locally grown and produced food items which not just have more health benefits but lesser carbon footprint. 

Increase consumption of pulses:

Pulses are known to naturally enrich the soil with essential nutrients and strengthen the soil structure, enhancing the ability of the farmland to yield more crops. Besides, pulses don’t require additional fertilising thus preventing water pollution. Pulses are great for health as they are rich source of iron, zince, vitamins, fibre and protein. 

Consume whole grains: 

Whole grains like wheat, rice, oats and barley make up for environmentally sustainable diet. Cultivation of grains require less water than other crops thus accounting for less water footprint. Further, whole grains are known to protect the health from heart diseases, diabetess, certain types of cancers, etc. 

There are many other environmental friendly foods that you can consume apart from the ones mentioned above. Avoid consuming more of red meat, diary products like milk, cheese, or yogurt, sugar or any highly processed food. Be mindful of what you consume. Understand the kind of impact food items have on climate and your health. This way you will be able to fix a diet that is both, climate and health friendly. Remember, any food having negative impact on the climate will adversely affect your health as well.