Healthy Eating And Sustainability
By Adam Adnan, 2nd year medical student
Healthy eating
What is healthy eating? Eating a healthy diet does not imply enforcing strict limitations, maintaining an artificially slim physique, or depriving yourself of your favourite foods; it’s more about feeling fantastic, having more energy, bettering your health, and enhancing your mood.
Sustainable Diets
We hear the word sustainability a lot but what does it actually mean? If you look up sustainability in the dictionary you will find it is defined as “the use of natural products in a way that does not harm the environment”. We should strive to eat healthy foods that have a positive environmental impact rather than causing harm to our planet.
The officially definition of a sustainable diet from the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations is: “Sustainable Diets are those diets with low environmental impact which contribute to food and nutrition security and to healthy life for present and future generations”. This means sustainable diets are based on a wide range of unprocessed foods and these can include wholegrains, nuts, fruits, and vegetables.
My food is grown not born
A great way to go about maintaining a healthy diet, while ensuring you are helping in the fight against climate change is to go vegan. Becoming a vegan is a difficult and tough decision to make and establish in your everyday routine. However, there are many different commitments you can take if you are not capable of going 100% vegan yet. For example, why not trying a vegan diet for 1 day a week or 1 week a month and slowly build up the love for plants step by step?
Here’s how your Big Mac is affecting climate change
According to the FAO, the production of meat and dairy products account for 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions; a mind blowing 7.1 gigatons of fuel! The destruction of forests and other ecosystems to make space for grazing is another way meat contributes to climate change. Next time you’re on lunch break, why not consider the vegan options the shops on and around Trinity’s Campus have to offer. Using Google to scout out tasty vegan foods nearby is an amazing tool. Go Vegan, for health, the planet, and the animals.
Enough talking, let’s get to doing
There are hundreds of recipes and many different cookbooks that offer veggie options and remember if you are too lazy to cook (which I am most of the time) you can always go to your favourite takeaway and buy the vegan option if they have one. However, if you are bothered to cook here is my go-to vegan recipe.
I will show you how easy it is to craft a quick vegan lunch. This mouth-watering recipe will only take up 5 minutes of your day, how vegtastic! Take out the chickpeas that have been laying at the back of your cabinet for months and bring it to good use.
Chickpea Salad Wrap
Yield: 3 servings
Prep Time: 5 minutes
Cook time: 0 minutes
Ingredients:
- 1 can chickpeas (250g)
- Chopped celery (64g)
- Chopped red onion (28g)
- Fresh dill (14g)
- 1 garlic clove, minced
- A squeeze of lemon juice
- Your preferred seeds/nuts (50g)
- Your preferred sauce/dressing (3g)
- 3 wraps or pitas
Directions:
- Mix everything into a bowl
- Season with salt and pepper to taste
- Stuff into a wrap or pita bread