Give it a go… plan your meals

Healthy and sustainable eating can be tasty and flexible. Using a meal planner to plan menus for the coming week is an easy way to ensure a diversity of delicious dishes and shopping according to your plan. (the Priceless team love Fraser & Parsley’s designs fraserandparsley.com – pictured, from a collaboration with Anna’s Family Kitchen). This not only saves time and money but also helps to avoid buying excess perishable produce. A weekly menu plan should ideally be realistic to implement, have some flexibility and, of course, be enjoyable to consume and prepare. Batch cooking is time and cost effective, so planning meals like stews, casseroles, chillis and pasta bakes for dinner and then lunch the following day is helpful. Cooking and preparing food at home provides a great opportunity for shared family time as well as passing recipes between generations. Shopping locally and seasonally, where possible, reduces the length of supply chains and therefore emissions, so make the most of your local farm shops or farmers markets.

Learn to… Eat more plants

One of the most sustainable dietary changes we can make is to eat fewer animal-based products, like meat and dairy, and consume more plant-based foods. Producing meat and dairy releases significantly higher amounts of greenhouse gas emissions compared with plant-based foods. For example, 24.2% of diet-related greenhouse gas emissions in the UK come from red meat production and 14.3% comes from dairy production. In comparison, beans and pulses account for 0.7%, and nuts and seeds account for 0.2% of these emissions.

The Planetary diet, which includes more plant-based whole foods and fewer animal source foods, is healthy, sustainable, and good for both people and the planet we live on. The diet doesn’t promote an all or nothing approach, as no food groups are excluded, rather it encourages small changes and moderation for a large and positive impact.