The future of nutrition How to eat today to change tomorrow
[Music]
have you ever wished you had a
superpower raise your hand if you have
nice
that’s almost everyone what if I told
you that each and every one of us
already has a superpower superpower that
can save lives and that will contribute
to saving our planet I’m Lea I’m a
nutrition scientist and I’m here today
to show you how we can all have a
positive impact the positive impact on
all beings of this planet the positive
impact on our own helps and a positive
impact on the earth that we all live on
I’m here to show you how to eat today to
change tomorrow but first I want to
share a little story with you imagine a
young girl she is about ten years old
and she’s on summer vacation with her
family visiting friends that lived on a
farm far into the beautiful French
countryside she is a city girl and she’s
thrilled to be out in nature
no but she doesn’t get that often in the
city and she’s running around the fields
and playing with all the animals her
favorite ones are the chickens they are
so cute oh they’re running around with
her all day and eating all the grains
she feeds them the farm owners are
really excited about the guests and want
to serve them the freshest food they can
so what do they do they go to the garden
they grab some of the vegetables and
then they go and grab one of the
chickens and they kill it in front of
everyone’s eyes the little girl is
horrified by what she sees later
at the dinner table even though she’s
really hungry she refuses to eat the
chicken soup that is being served it
isn’t until that moment
for the first time in her life she
realizes what meat actually is that
those delicious-looking pieces in the
soup only a few hours ago actually had
legs and we’re running around with her
in the garden you may be wondering that
little girl was me and that was the
moment I stopped eating meat at ten
years old it wasn’t a rational decision
I was moral conviction there was an
inner voice that was telling me I don’t
want to do harm to other living beings
neither human beings nor animal beings
it wasn’t about a few years later that I
actually came to realize that cutting
out meat out of my diet isn’t only good
for moral perspective but also has a lot
of benefits for our physical well-being
and for the health of our planet my
academic career started in medical
school that medical campus was located
on the hospital ground so every morning
when I walk to class I was surrounded by
sick people my patients that are
suffering from chronic diseases such as
cancer diabetes or cardiovascular
diseases about like two years into my
studies I began to question why are all
of these people sick why are they
suffering from chronic diseases that
didn’t even exist like one lifetime ago
to fight answers to all these questions
I started digging into the scientific
literature and never had a lot of papers
and I found out that our nutrition it’s
the single largest contributor to
chronic diseases
there was one statistic that was
published by the World Health
Organization that really stuck with me
80% of chronic diseases are preventable
80% and our nutrition is the single
largest contributor to chronic diseases
that is the result of not just one study
but that is the result of thousands and
thousands of studies that were conducted
over the course of decades for me really
understanding and internalizing like
these facts was enough to convince me
that I wanted to leave med school and to
become a nutrition scientist instead
while I was studying nutrition I
stumbled across the secret of longevity
that was researched that was published
about Blue Zones
first I had no idea what it was but I
dig dug a little deeper Blue Zones are
regions in the world where people live a
lot longer and they also suffer from
only a fraction of the chronic diseases
that are killing the rest of the world
there has been a lot of data published
on Blue Zones and from all of that
empirical data that has been collected
they have been 3 points identified the
contribute to the Blue Zone inhabitants
longevity and these factors are
lifestyle social setting and nutrition
which is what we’re going to focus on
now the average Western diet looks like
that it is very high in carbohydrates
and processed food and meat and dairy
products so I mentioned Blue Zones
one of the most studied Blue Zone is
Okinawa that is an island in Japan and
the traditional diet in Okinawa looks
like that the largest part of their diet
a fruit and vegetables less than five
percent come from meat and fish
unfortunately as globalization
progressed the diet in Okinawa has also
changed and no longer looks like it does
here in the pyramid but
from the data that has been collected we
can draw very important conclusions and
those are that Okinawans had
historically a higher life span lower
number of chronic diseases and in
correlation with that it diet centered
around fruits and vegetables today we
have a body of evidence of scientific
research that is supporting diets that
are similar to that of the Okinawan
studies show that people who follow a
plant-based diet have a 60% lower risk
of diabetes in 19 percent lower risk of
cancer in the 40% lower risk of
cardiovascular diseases so we’ve talked
about the moral aspect of cutting out
meat and the health benefits of it if we
bring these two together we can see that
following a plant-based diet does our
mall campus justice and provides
tremendous benefits for physical
well-being we can see that how we today
effects our health tomorrow but there is
even more to it but many people do not
know is that the food we eat has a
direct impact on the climate and thus on
the future of our planet
global warming is more than just a
buzzword it is happening in every
country on every continent at every
minute around the world despite a lot of
governmental regulations that are
necessary to combat the negative side
effects and the deconstruction the
global warming brings along the outlook
of us reaching the Greek climate goals
is still not very positive but I believe
that there’s still hope and that hope is
at the end of our Forks and on our
plates our food system it’s the single
largest
- global warming our food system is
responsible for 30 percent of greenhouse
gas emissions 30% according to the
United Nations half of that comes from
animal farming that is more than from
the entire global transport system in
other words animal farming produces more
greenhouse gases than all cars all boats
and all airplanes combined that my
friends is the incredible benefit that a
plant-based diet can have one thing I
really want you to leave here today is
realizing that we all have a superpower
that you and I have the superpower to
decide do we want other beings to suffer
on our behalf or do we want to live in
harmony with them
do we want to suffer from chronic
diseases or do we want to prevent 80% of
those chronic diseases and live a
healthy long life do we want our
children and our children’s children to
grow up in a world where people fight
over water and when you selected group
of people or if nations have access to
nutritious food what do we want them to
grow up in a world where they can enjoy
the beauty of a spring day and bloom
where they can listen to the bees
humming and if their animal lovers like
me even play with the chickens in the
garden which one do you prefer maybe
you’re thinking okay I get it
a plant-based diet is good but how
should I incorporate that into my life
my life is so busy I barely find time to
eat let alone think about when and where
to eat believe me I hear you and I feel
you we have so many compete
getting demands in our lives that having
to think about our nutrition on top of
all of that can be overwhelming and that
is why I’m not advocating that you do a
radical shift and cut out meat out of
your diet as of today there are
different shades of brain and any step
you take so it’s a little greener
there’s a step in the right direction
there is a concept that I personally
really like it is called OMD and it is
what’s invented or described by the
environmental activist Susie Cameron OMD
stands for one plant-based meal a day
one meal a day I personally love that
concept because it is simple it is
practical and is literally doable for
everyone one plant-based meal a day that
could mean replacing the milk in your
morning cereal with oat milk or some
other plant-based alternative or it
could mean replacing that chicken salad
or that chicken soup with a healthy
delicious vegetable alternative maybe
you’re thinking now okay
one plant-based meal a day I could do
that but what impact is that possibly
gonna have what a second a change the
answer is a lot projections show that if
you if one person for one year replaces
one meat or dairy containing meal a day
with a plant-based alternative they will
save 740,000 liters of water that is
about 10,000 showers and they will also
save greenhouse gas emissions that are
equivalent to driving a thousand five
hundred kilometres with a car that is
like driving from Berlin from Frankfurt
of course all the way to Rome in Italy
that my
it’s the impact that one single
individual can have now imagine what
would happen if we all take this first
step towards a plant-based diet this is
one meal a day that means there’s one
small shift in our own mindset is one
small shift in our own behavior I talked
in the beginning about having a
superpower it is one small shift that we
can all do they will make big change
happen if we all take this first step
towards a plant-based diet how we today
will change tomorrow
[Applause]