Let me start this month’s column with a question. Do you know the contents of your fridge? And by that I don’t mean what food it contains. I mean the carbon emissions of its content.

Producing a kilo of yoghurt generates one and a half times its weight in carbon emissions. This doesn’t include its pot (usually plastic) nor the emissions of transporting the yoghurt to your fridge. Every item in your fridge emits carbon. Just how much is down to the choices that you make and the knowledge you accrue about food-related carbon emissions.

Many of us love a burger but are you aware that emissions from one burger can be as high as 6kg? That’s the same amount of carbon it takes to drive 90km in a regular, mid-sized car. And producing that burger consumes 3,000 litres of water – enough for two daily showers for a month.

And then there are instant noodles which contain about 20% palm oil. Malaysia clears rainforests largely to produce palm oil, decimating carbon sinks that have stood since the beginning of time while laying waste to animal habitats – driving them to live ever closer to us, thus increasing the chances of pandemics like, or possibly worse than, Covid-19.

It is encouraging that the industry is looking into sustainable plantations since this needs to be urgently addressed. And let’s not forget that instant noodles are wrapped in plastics, which I discussed in last month’s column.

This destruction of our ecosystems simply to satisfy our appetites is problematic from a planetary health perspective. However, the planetary health approach doesn’t propose that we stop producing food that is affordable; rather that we rethink how food systems ensure that the health of the planet and our health are protected.

The current global food system does neither of these things. Big corporations have won the day by providing us with cheap, tasty, high-fat, high-sugar, low-nutrition but high profit foodstuffs. And we are suffering the consequences of this.

Obesity is at an all-time high. Here in Malaysia, we suffer the highest levels in South-East Asia. In the 2019 National Health and Morbidity Survey, 50% of our adult population were reported to be overweight (30%) or obese (20%).

Obesity brings other illnesses – diabetes, cardiovascular issues, stroke and a higher likelihood of cancer. One in three Malaysians are diabetic and one in four are hypertensive. The majority of these diseases are attributed to poor diet and inactive lifestyles.

And for the planet, which provides us with everything that is put on our plates, the planetary health stresses are also becoming clear. Biodiversity loss, desertification, changing weather patterns, increased carbon emissions fuelling the climate crisis, and frightening levels of degradation of soil quality and thus nutritional value of the crops that are grown in it. This is all being done for the sake of profits that we neither see nor benefit from.

Food is another issue where it’s difficult to know what to do. Making choices that protect our health and that of the planet aren’t easy. But there are five basics that are relatively easy:

1. Eat more plants and fewer animal products

The types of food you eat matters the most for health, your food carbon footprint and the health of the planet. Did you know 95% of Malaysians do not consume the recommended daily amounts of vegetables and fruit?

2. Swap out one animal product at a time

Thus, rather than cutting all animal products out of your diet at once, replace one with plant-based alternatives.

3. Where you can, buy local

Use wet markets rather than supermarkets – the food in the former is often more likely to have come from nearby than far away. If in doubt, ask where the food is from and avoid foods that have travelled – they likely aren’t that fresh anyway.

4. Reduce your intake of highly processed foods

It’s a myth that junk food is cheaper than healthy food. A recent study conducted by the United States Agricultural Department compared cost of foods by weight or portion size which showed that grains, veggies, fruit and dairy foods are less costly than most meats or foods high in added sugar, salt, or artery-clogging saturated fat. Their methods of production are also a lot kinder to the planet.

5. Read the label

If you’re buying processed foods check the ingredients. The more there are the more likely it is that you’re buying food that isn’t good for you.

When it comes to food, as with so many other things, it is our individual choices that will provoke and promote change, our pushback on global greed and the big corporations’ abdication of responsibility to protect our health.

We all want a world that is safe and where we can thrive. The relationship between what we put in our stomachs and our health is obvious. The relationship between how that food that is produced and the health of the planet is less immediately obvious but equally important. Without a healthy planet our food systems and health will be compromised.

This article was published in The Star Online. Read it here.