MOlti believe that going around by bike and remembering to turn off the lights are the best ways to weigh less on the planet. Everything helps, but the most effective action to reduce our impact on the environment is the sustainable expense. Among other things, kind food with the earth is kind to the body. The good food reconciles the ego and the òikos, as the ancient Greeks called the house, from which “ecology”.
In our laps at the supermarket we can make the difference. Really. The non -profit organization Project DrawDown he estimated they could be Avoid between 78 and 103 gigatonnellate of carbon dioxide emissions equivalent (expression that includes all climbing gases) from here to 2050, if three quarters of the world population adopted a healthy dietwith a lot of vegetables, fruit and legumes, lowering the consumption of red meat.
In another analysis, it started from the hypothesis that i Led, The most efficient bulbs from an energy point of view, become omnipresent within that same date, as a 90 percent of domestic and commercial lighting. Do you know how much you would save in emissions? Between 14 and 15 gigatonnellate. There is no game.
The impact of the food system
The world tables weigh in Spanne for a third on greenhouse gas emissions (Nature, 2021). Gas said so because in the atmosphere they manage to retain heat, as in a greenhouse, and which now, emitted in large quantities for human activities, threaten climatic balance. If you eat, you are part of the food system.
A reason why food contributes to global warming is deforestation, when forests are destroyed to make room for cattle and food for animals. Again, the methanegreenhouse gas 80 times more powerful than CO2: They produce it cows, sheep and goats with their digestion. Based on the recent report of Greenpeace Nordicthe estimated methane emissions of 29 of the main global zootechnical companies (including an Italian) are comparable to those of the largest fossil fuels such as Shell or Exxonmobil. Finally, there are the emissions that come from agricultural machineryfrom the productions of fertilizers, by the industry of Food transformation and from shipments.
The five nutritional pillars
For the climatic impact, the type of food you eat is much more important than foods are local or biological. To orient themselves in spending, the healthy and sustainable table It includes: two three portions per day of vegetables and two three of fruit; cereals (better if whole and semi-integral); legumes at least three times a week as a protein source; Sustainable animal proteins (excluded for vegans)limiting aged cheeses and red meat.
In general, beef, kid, veal and lamb have the greatest influence on global warming By gram of proteins, while vegetables tend to have the minor. Pork, many types of fish and poultry are in the middlea little higher for carbon impact cheeses. Vegetable protein sources, such as legumes, whole grains and shell fruit are the most respectful options of the climate.
Focus on legumes
We should focus on legumes. There pasta with beans, it is clear, can replace a steak. It reads here and there that the vegetable proteins are of lower quality, but it is more correct to say that the majority of legumes can be lacking in some amino acids, the bricks that form proteins, and that are remedied with cereals.
We can do our part by filling the trolley of the right foods, wasting less and reducing packaging (Getty Images)
Lentil soup with bread, rice and peas, dietary and chickpeas: The single dish of tradition. When they find fresh, peas or fava beans are a party for the palate, but the majority of charitable substances resists frozen, drying and canned conservation. And there are excellent products without any addition of additives, for fast preparations. Legume flour -based pasta is also promoted.
Word of order: vary
The sustainable table is varied. There is no reason to avoid bread, pasta and rice, at the base of Italian cuisine, if anything it should be remembered that the Mediterranean diet marries biodiversity. Why lose the spelled, which is full of vitamin B? Oats and barley give betaglucans, special fibers that could lower cholesterol levels, and buckwheat and rye could be eaten more often.
The fish as provided
Variety also for marine animals. According to some estimates, the canned tuna is the second type of fish most consumed by the Italians after the cod. The WWF recommends preferring the cans on which the MSC stamp (Marine Stewardship Council), a non -profit organization specialized in the certification of sustainable practices, but you can be less repetitive and keep home mackerel, a blue fish that is caught and inscribed in Italy, the sardines in the jarcaptured in abundance in the Adriatic Sea, and the marinated anchovies, that are sold to the gastronomy bench of the super -supplied super supplied.
For the supplies, not to be underestimated the frozentes, given that the freezer does not alter the nutritional valueand seafood, which must be considered a source of Serie A protein.
The zero kilometer is not enough
Made in Italy or imported? The zero kilometer is a beautiful philosophy, but it is not enough to eat sustainablely. Only a small percentage of emissions comes from food trips. The bananas, for example, in the majority of cases are sent by ship, with a low impact, so giving up is much less significant than reducing the consumption of red meat. In principle, it is a good idea to eat seasonal fruit and vegetables, to vary the supply of nutrients. If environmental labels existed, it should be specified if a product comes from outdoor soil, a heated greenhouse or a passive, simply closed. Winter tomatoes in Milan, to say, are less problematic than you think if they come by sea by the typical Sicilian greenhouses heated only by the coverage that traps the sunflower.
No to waste
An even easier way to think about the planet is not to waste. Project drawdown has calculated that equivalent CO2 emissions would be reduced by 88.5 gigatonnellate if by 2050 the food waste was halved. The methods not to throw part of the shopping in the bin are simple: planning the meals of the week in principle; Buy products that are maintained for a long time as dry legumes; keeping an eye on the expiration dates, remembering that the inscription “to be consumed preferably within the” does not mean “by the”; Consider that the warding of perishable food is senseless and that special offers must be evaluated on a case -by -case basis; Learn home to recycle leftovers.
What to limit
The foods with the greatest climatic impact coincide with those that are not the best for health. There are five categories to be limited when you shop:
•red meat;
• worked and preserved meats, such as hot dogs, salami and sausages;
• Alcohol;
• high calorie products, such as refined flours doughs or sugary drinks;
• Ultra-procepsed foods, like many snacks and snacks. Precisely the products that have undergone an energetic processing, with a long list of ingredients and additives, called “ultra-processed”, are associated with the increase in the risk of a series of pathologies.
Less packaging
The SmartFood team of the IEO in Milan recalls another trick: buy bulk fruit and vegetables, to avoid paper and plastic packaging, perhaps taking the bag from home. If impossible, prefer foods sold in recyclable packs or obtained with the highest percentage of recycled plastic.
Individual actions work
Those who consider the actions of the insufficient individuals to change the fate of the planet should remember what happened with ozone. It was the Dutch scientist Paul Crutzen who discovered that the CFCs (chlorofluorocarburi) pierced him. Nobody had ever thought that the sky above the sky could be damaged by the hair and gases of the refrigerators, but it was so true that in 1987 the Montréal protocol banned the CFCs. The skeptics read the study just published in Nature (March 5, 2025): the hole in the ozone is shrinking following that measure. We influence our world. We are in the anthropocene, as Crutzen himself said to define this geological era, a human breath set in the gigantic intervals of the earth.
Eliana Liotta (photo by Carlo Vangeri Gilbert).
Eliana Liotta is a journalist, writer and scientific popularizer. On Iodonna.it and on the main platforms (Spreaker, Spotify, Apple Podcast and Google Podcast) you will find its podcast series The good I want to.
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