Scientists have discovered a diet that is perfect for the health of the planet and its population, including doubling the consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes, and halving the consumption of meat and sugar.
If the planetary planetary health is followed, it could save more than 11 million people from early death each year, it said, adding that it would contribute to reducing greenhouse gas emissions and would protect more land, water and biodiversity.
"The food we eat and how we produce it determine the health of people and the planet, and we are currently seriously dealing with it," said Tim Lang, a professor at the University of London who co-sponsored the research.
Feeding an estimated 10 billion people by 2015 according to a healthy, sustainable diet would be impossible without changing dietary habits, improving food production and reducing waste, he said.
"We need a major reform, and to change the world's diet on an unprecedented scale," Lang said.
Many life-threatening chronic diseases are linked to poor diets, including obesity, diabetes, malnutrition and several types of cancer.
The researchers said that unhealthy diets are now causing more deaths and morbidity worldwide than many factors combined, the unsafe practice of sex and the use of alcohol, drugs and tobacco.
The proposed planetary diet is the result of a three-year project commissioned by the Lancet health journal and attended by 37 specialists from 16 countries.
According to the system, the average global consumption of foods such as red meat and sugar should be reduced by 50 percent, while consumption of nuts, fruits, vegetables and legumes should be doubled.
For individual geographical regions, this system means more significant changes. North Americans, for example, eat more than 6.5 times the recommended amount of red meat, while South Asian people eat only half the amount suggested by the planetary diet.
Meeting the proposed goals of the system for starchy crops such as potatoes and cassava will require significant changes in sub-Saharan Africa, where people average 7.5 times more than the proposed amount.
The researchers, who presented the diet in a media briefing yesterday, acknowledged that the hope that everyone in the world will adopt this diet is too ambitious, not least because of the wide global disparity in food distribution.
"More than 800 million people do not eat enough, while many consume unhealthy diets that contribute to premature death and disease," said Walter Willett of Harvard University in the United States.
"If we can not achieve that, we'd better try to get as close to him as possible," he said.