Healthy menus for people and planet

From Harvard Gazette

"With an eye toward human-induced climate change, Willett showed an analysis of the greenhouse gas production required to produce different foods. Beef and lamb were the highest, producing 10 times the greenhouse gases used by the lowest-producing foods, beans and nuts. When looking at protein sources, Willett said that greenhouse gas production per pound of protein is related to how long an animal lives before it is slaughtered. The difference between a cow, which lives two to four years, and a chicken, whose life span from egg to slaughter is just weeks, makes chicken, from a greenhouse gas standpoint, more like a nut than a cow."


Healthy menus for people and planet
Harvard experts and food industry leaders probe intersection of diet and the environment
By Alvin Powell
Harvard Staff Writer
Thursday, June 13, 2013

When it comes to human dietary health, less red meat is better. And when it comes to environmental health, a chicken looks more like a nut than a cow.

That was a portion of the presentation by Harvard health experts to restaurateurs, chefs, and food industry leaders during a three-day leadership summit at the Charles Hotel in Cambridge.

The advice, in this case from Walter Willett, chair of the Nutrition Department at the Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH) and the Frederick John Stare Professor of Epidemiology and Nutrition, was part of a larger meeting of the minds involving leaders in the food industry, nutrition experts, and authorities on environmental sustainability that aimed to provide guidance in designing menus across America.

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