India’s leading daily newspaper, The Times Of India, published a double-page article praising plant-based diets.
The author claims that a plant-based diet is the most nutritional and has the most negligible environmental impact.
Even though India is widely regarded as a vegetarian country, the article claims the traditional and sustainable diet is changing towards a more industrialized diet, topped with more meat, refined grains, and sugar.
Global warming
Climate change is believed to have caused raging heat waves in recent years, prompting the country to promote whole food plant-based diets.
An interview with a Harvard University professor of epidemiology and nutrition highlights the health benefits of plant-based eating.
Degradation of the ecosystem
Dr Walter C Willett, a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School, said: “Eating plants is much more efficient than feeding them to animals and then eating the animals.”
He concluded that we could sustainably produce about two servings of animal-sourced foods per day based on analyses of the global community.
He added that exceeding these numbers would be “incompatible with environmental sustainability.” Also, he said: “The resulting ecological degradation would end up threatening global food production.”
Beneficial effects on health
In terms of health benefits, Prof. Willett explained that plants rich in nutrients could replace meat in almost everything.
Plant-based proteins can reduce bad cholesterol.
Decrease in disease
Plant-based Health Professionals UK board member Rohini Bajekal also agrees. The Indian diet has been dominated by plant protein sources such as legumes and grains for centuries.
India can reduce the burden of chronic lifestyle diseases such as diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure by shifting away from ultra-processed foods and animal products, such as dairy.
“Animal agriculture is a major factor driving the climate crisis and global food insecurity”, Rohini claimed.