The health and environmental benefits of a healthy diet

Did you know the benefits of implementing a healthy plant-based or pesco-vegetarian diet extend beyond our own personal health? Professor Luigi Fontana is an internationally recognised physician scientist and his team at the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney, have extensive knowledge on the topic.

Professor Fontana explains, “In order to maximise our health and wellbeing we also have to take care of the environment in which we live. We must protect our Natural Capital by drastically reducing the consumption of animal food which is responsible for 18% of CO2 emissions, 40% of PM2.5 emissions (a pollutant of concern for people’s health when levels in the air are high), topsoil impoverishment, deforestation, over-pumping of groundwater, and widespread pollution of land and water”.

All of these have drastic and negative consequences on the environment and the future of the world in which we live.

Another important step we can take to maximise our health is substituting processed foods with food rich in vegetable fibre. Professor Fontana explains, “By doing this we can improve our metabolic and gut microbiome health, which can ultimately reduce our risk of developing multiple chronic diseases, including cardiovascular disease, cancer, and many inflammatory and autoimmune disorders.” 

Finding delicious and nutritious vegetarian recipes has never been easier, as more and more people appreciate the importance of eating unprocessed, fresh and wholesome food. Hopewood has advocated this approach to diet for over 60 years and offers abundant recipe options. 

All things considered, Professor Fontana thinks the most important purpose of life should be to achieve happiness, by overcoming the suffering inflicted by physical, mental, moral, and spiritual ailments. He concludes, “To stay healthy we need to eat properly and practise a variety of physical, cognitive, and meditative exercises that strengthen our physical endurance and our emotional, intuitive and creative intelligence. We will be able to enjoy, until late in life, together with our relatives and friends, all the wonderful experiences that life, this beautiful planet Earth, the sun, the moon and the stars present to us every day.’ 

Stay healthy and be happy.