Thanks for the feedback, good that it nearly all squares with my thoughts. I hope the slight changes I've made are inclusive?
The same and much more information can be found at EatEngland.org
1. Eat simple, eat less but go for quality, think balance eat no more than you need & build exercise into your diet
- a typical Brit is eating 3500 calories, a 46 year old man needs 2300 - that's as wasteful as binning it- meals rich in fruit, vegetables, pulses, wholegrains and nuts are great- good ingredients taste better & are normally better for everyone- accept food is going to get more expensive & good food will cost more- 3 meals a day, always a good breakfast, a main meal (best midday) & a light meal- rarely have I seen a good place to buy fuel for my body that mainly sell it for my car- processed food is often unhealthy, tasteless, high in fat &/or salt- go back 100 or even 10,000 years and when we could the healthiest of us did exactly this
2. Choose food for how it's grown: think about - animal welfare (meat & dairy), wildlife & biodiversity, water, embedded oil/carbon, buy local and eat the seasons when you can
- a typical Brit adult may be eating 6.5-8.5kgs of embedded greenhouse gasses (GHG/carbon): by 2020 we have to get that down to less than 5kgs, and by 2027 4kgs of carbon to meet our global obligations- local food may not always be lower in impacts, but it's better for the economy & our culture for sure- seasonal food is likely to be lower in its impacts, cheaper & tastier, so why not?- you cannot eat packaging, sometimes it helps safe waste & is good, sometimes it just costs more- free range, outdoor reared, loved and cared animals will provide better products, like us animals have evolved over 1000's of years to live in ceratin way, changing that over a few decades will not work
3. Eat Fair
- by eating in excess we will be taking food from others who are not as well off as we are- the poorest farmers in the world are working hard to feed us, let's pay them for it and also not eat their share- don't waste your food we throw away between 20-40% of everything we buy, & buy too much
4. Eat more plants, go beyond 5 a day for fruit & vegetables, think 6-12 portions a day
- a portion is around 80g or a good handful- we include up to 2 portions of potatoes- count fruit as no more than 3 or 4 if you hit 12, juice a max of 2 if of differing types- limit high impact fruit & vegetables: airfreighted (out of season herbs, greens & tropical) unless fair-trade, tomatoes/peppers/chillies/cucumbers out of season
5. Eat less than the norm for meat, cheese and dairy
- for meat, hard cheese and butter no more than 2 full portions per day: that's 100-150g per day (count a 50g portion of soft cheese or similar as half/25g)- presently we eat around 216g of meat per day and a good chunk of cheese and a little butter- pay for the best, organic, LEAF & Red Tractor, by growing food to higher standards we will hopefully help the environment, have less to pay cleaning up the pollution & have better tasting food- artisan/expensive usually means more for the farmer, you pay for what you get- rumour has it we mostly enjoy the first few mouthfuls of meat & cheese
6. Eat fish in moderation and always from sustainable sources
- 2 portions a week, oily fish is good (like sardine, herring, anchovy, salmon, trout & mackerel)- a portion is a 50-100g fillet, or 100-200g whole- look for sustainable fish like MSC certified or local day boat caught
7. Drinks: minimise all but the mains tap water
- bottled drinks & definitely water is a treat, tap is better for the pocket & planet- alcohol in moderation for yours & the planets health- tea & coffee should be fairly traded with thought for the environment, they are high impact
8. Eat "Real Food" and think about how it's cooked & presented
- give some but not all your attention to the science of nutrition, remember it's not always correct - cooking in animal fats is now thought by many to be healthier than cooking in vegetable oils- don't always think of specific foods or "food groups" as being the goal, eating real food is most important- enjoy "meals" cooked for or by you using real ingredients - more social, healthy and kinder to everyone than ultra processed ready to (h)eat products- oil and fats in moderation, again animal fats/proteins are OK to eat and cook with in moderation- we eat too much salt around 8-9g per day, we need 6, minimise processed foods and don't add it unless you have too- the associated electric & gas used in preparing & eating can more than double it's impacts- food should look good, it makes it more enjoyable- smaller plates help to keep intake down
9. Eat feasts with friends on high days & holidays - it's fun & what life should be about
- please do eat out and party, but then compensate your lifestyle before/after- feasts should be happy occasions, for all the participants of the food chain
10. Learn about food, it's important: think the nutrition, health, the planet & taste & then ask would Great Grandma have known this as food?
- talk to the person who selling you the food, they should know more than you- is meat grown on soya from reclaimed rainforest land local or sustainable?- Your ancestors only ate real food, we've evolved to eat a good range of this over many 1000's of years
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