WE live in a world where calorie-rich foods are cheap and more accessible, but they lack the nutrients critical for growth, development and overall health.
High-quality proteins, especially plant-based proteins such as soy, quinoa, rice and, pea can help replace food with little or no nutrition value to overcome the triple burden of malnutrition: undernutrition, micronutrient deficiency, and obesity.
The intersection of nutrition and sustainability is essential to a better future, and as conscious consumers, we need to ensure that our diets are not only sustainable for our health but also for the planet.
We need to cultivate food that is good for our health in ways that are restorative to Earth.
Sustainable nutrition offers a forward-thinking framework whereby the food that we eat is diverse, nutrient-dense, and healthy while grown sustainably and without negative impacts on the ecosystem. It is guided by a set of characteristics, including:
*Eating a diet that is more plant-based, with a higher nutrient density.
*Choosing sustainably-sourced meats and fish when possible.
*Reducing the consumption of foods high in sugar and saturated fats.
*Reducing or eliminating food waste
*Adopting a regenerative approach to agriculture.
The current global diet is unsustainable given the gaps in wealth, opportunity and distribution. In Malaysia, while close to 17,000 tonnes of food waste is recorded daily, one in five Malaysian children under the age of five are stunted, while half of Malaysian adults are either overweight or obese.
Cutting back on eating meat and dairy products is said to be an effective method to decrease the environmental impact on the planet, according to a comprehensive analysis of the damage meat farming does to the planet.
Today, consuming plant-based protein is commonplace. More people now understand that plant-based diets are not devoid of protein – in fact, plant foods are nutrient-dense, which means that they provide an abundance of nutrients relative to their calorie cost.
Also, plant-based proteins, as opposed to animal protein, are naturally cholesterol-free and are relatively low in saturated fats.
While soy is the king of plant-based proteins, as it contains all of the nine essential amino acids our body cannot produce on its own, other types of alternative proteins such as pea, quinoa and rice can also promote satiation and provide high protein content.
Substituting animal-based proteins with plant-based proteins is the way forward as consumers grow more concerned about their environmental footprint.
According to the World Resources Report, world food production will need to increase by more than 50 per cent to feed close to 10 billion people in 2050.
In Malaysia, the Ministry of Agriculture and Food Industries (MAFI) reports that Malaysia heavily relies on food imports to meet the increasing demand for basic foods such as rice, vegetables, fruits, beef and milk, amongst others.
To provide people with a nutritious diet, global food systems and eating habits need to change.
To achieve sustainability within food systems, we need to meet the nutritional demands of everyone now, while also reducing the environmental impact for future generations.
*The writer is vice president of nutrition training, Herbalife Nutrition.
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