Save the World – Eat SEVEN Portions of Fruit and Vegetables a Day

There is, and has been for years, evidence that a diet high in vegetables and fruit is more healthy that one overloaded with meat and dairy, but the timing of the new “7 a day” is at the least suspicious.

Yesterday the IPCC published their latest climate report. We are all but doomed apparently as the vast majority of the damage has already been done and unless we act NOW that’s it, game over.

Today, the headlines are that we need to reduce meat in out diets and ramp up the fruit, and even more importantly, the veggies.

It has long been a belief by climate scientists that cattle emit way too much greenhouse gas with their constant burping and farting. It has even been suggested that if we all went vegetarian the world would be saved and all would be good again.

Bullshit.

There has been a massive uptick in the amount of land used to grow biofuels. Much of the beef ranching land in Argentina is now given over to biofuel crops. It’s an obvious correlation that the less meat there is available the higher the prices will be. For many families meat is a treat, a revered product reserved for Sunday lunchtimes which is increasingly the only  meal of the week where the whole family sits and eats together.

I really believe there is an element of ushering us towards eating a massive amount of fruit and vegetables in order to reduce the greenhouse gases omitted by livestock. So much better to have us make the decision to reduce consumption ourselves, either for health or cost reasons, than to have the government make us do it.

Just for your reference  ONE portion is considered to be:

• 7 cherry or plum tomatoes
• Half a lettuce
• 1 apple
• 3 apricots
• 1 medium banana
• 2 handfuls of blueberries
• 14 fresh cherries
• 2 clementines
• 2 kiwi fruit
• 7 spears of asparagus
• 6 Brussels sprouts
• 1/6th of a cabbage
• 3 medium carrots
• 3 sticks of celery
• 14 small mushrooms
• 1 medium onion
• 1 large parsnip
• a cereal bowl full of spinach
• 8 spring/salad onions
• 1 large sweet potato
• 1 large corn cob

(Source)

I could go on, but you get the idea. Remember, each of the items on the list is ONE portion and the new recommendation is SEVEN portions a day.

There won’t be a lot of room left for a decent bacon sandwich or a juicy steak will there?

There is no mention of the World Health Organization statement that children need the micronutrients that meat provides. That without the equivalent of four teaspoons of meat a week they suffer from a reduced mental capacity and do not perform as well as their meat-eating counterparts in studies.

Take care

Liz