EAT-Lancet Report for a sustainable food system

• One of the most influential public health documents of this decade, the EAT-Lancet Commission’s Food Planet Health, was formally released for India.

EAT-Lancet Report

• The report stated that transformation to healthy diets by 2050 will require substantial dietary shifts.
• The report was authored by 37 international experts, including two from India, has been put together by EAT, the science-based global platform for food system transformation, and the journal The Lancet .

Highlights of the report

• The EAT-Lancet Commission’s report, for the first time proposes scientific targets for what constitutes a healthy diet derived from a sustainable food system.
• It added that healthy diets had an optimal caloric intake and consisted largely of a diversity of plant-based foods and low amounts of animal-source foods, contained unsaturated rather than saturated fats, and limited amounts of refined grains, highly processed foods and added sugars.
• The report also called for doubling in the consumption of healthy foods such as fruits, vegetables, legumes and nuts, and a greater than 50 per cent reduction in global consumption of less healthy foods.
• EAT-Lancet also proposed a country-specific report for a reference diet for India, which was supported by the country’s apex food regulator, which stated that the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), Hyderabad.