Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Clean Eating
Eating clean is the single most impactful way to reduce your ecological impact. But what exactly is clean eating, and why is it a sustainable practice?
What Eating Clean Really Means
From keto to Whole30, new dietary approaches to wellness seem to crop up regularly. Some are highly restrictive, and others allow for more flexibility. All of these approaches, however, prioritize whole, unprocessed foods, otherwise known as clean eats.
Clean eating emphasizes fresh produce and slow-metabolizing foods derived from plant sources in lieu of processed foods, animal products, and added salts and sugars. In practice, that means prioritizing a rainbow of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and healthy plant oils.
Clean eating also embraces local, seasonal produce. Instead of counting calories, it’s about developing a more mindful relationship with food and understanding the farm-to-table origins of what you consume.
A conscious shift towards eating clean offers an array of immediate and long-term wellness wins.
What Clean Eating Can Do For You
A diet rich in whole foods will help enable your body to burn energy at a more even pace, helping you avoid blood sugar spikes and crashes. Healthy fats and omega fatty acids have been shown to improve hormonal balance and help fight stress. Dishes high in fiber and low in sodium can help decrease inflammation and aid blood flow to the digestive system, which combats bloating. Finally, a low-sugar, antioxidant-rich diet may help promote clear, hydrated skin.
But the benefits don’t stop there. Clean eating is a healthy choice for both your body and the planet.
The Environmental Impact of Eating Clean
A plant-forward diet can help positively impact climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, natural resource consumption, and air and water pollution. A study analyzing the global impacts of food production found that meat, aquaculture, and dairy production creates 56-58% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions while only providing 37% of our protein and 18% of global caloric intake. In many cases, emissions generated by feed production alone exceed those of vegetable protein farming.
Nearly half of the earth’s usable land is devoted to industrial animal agriculture. Currently, we use an area equivalent to the combined size of North and South America to raise livestock and grow livestock feed.
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification has observed that commercial production of livestock and feed is a primary cause of deforestation. Deforestation reduces biodiversity and also destroys crucial storage reservoirs for carbon dioxide. Furthermore, industrialized farming pollutes water and soil with excessive deposits of nitrogen and phosphorus found in commercial fertilizers.
According to the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we will not meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement without eating less meat. As per the EAT - Lancet report, global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes must double, and American consumption of red meat and sugar must be cut by more than half. Both reports recommended a transition to plant-forward diets.
If you’re ready to make a change, Thistle can help.
Sustainability In Action
Here at Thistle, we strive to help people reconnect to nature through whole, sustainably derived foods.
To create our mouthwatering, plant-forward menu, Thistle partners with environmentally responsible local farmers, artisans and producers wherever possible. We strive for our dishes to showcase produce at its peak—-this means that many of our featured ingredients are sourced locally during seasonal harvests. By doing this, we help reduce food waste and protect local land from degradation at the hands of commercial agribusiness. Whenever we can, we support farmers in our community who share our sustainable ethos rather than producers thousands of miles away.
Our goal is to build a better food system, one meal at a time.
Investigating the Environmental Benefits of Clean Eating
Eating clean is the single most impactful way to reduce your ecological impact. But what exactly is clean eating, and why is it a sustainable practice?
What Eating Clean Really Means
From keto to Whole30, new dietary approaches to wellness seem to crop up regularly. Some are highly restrictive, and others allow for more flexibility. All of these approaches, however, prioritize whole, unprocessed foods, otherwise known as clean eats.
Clean eating emphasizes fresh produce and slow-metabolizing foods derived from plant sources in lieu of processed foods, animal products, and added salts and sugars. In practice, that means prioritizing a rainbow of vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, legumes, whole grains, and healthy plant oils.
Clean eating also embraces local, seasonal produce. Instead of counting calories, it’s about developing a more mindful relationship with food and understanding the farm-to-table origins of what you consume.
A conscious shift towards eating clean offers an array of immediate and long-term wellness wins.
What Clean Eating Can Do For You
A diet rich in whole foods will help enable your body to burn energy at a more even pace, helping you avoid blood sugar spikes and crashes. Healthy fats and omega fatty acids have been shown to improve hormonal balance and help fight stress. Dishes high in fiber and low in sodium can help decrease inflammation and aid blood flow to the digestive system, which combats bloating. Finally, a low-sugar, antioxidant-rich diet may help promote clear, hydrated skin.
But the benefits don’t stop there. Clean eating is a healthy choice for both your body and the planet.
The Environmental Impact of Eating Clean
A plant-forward diet can help positively impact climate change, biodiversity loss, deforestation, natural resource consumption, and air and water pollution. A study analyzing the global impacts of food production found that meat, aquaculture, and dairy production creates 56-58% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions while only providing 37% of our protein and 18% of global caloric intake. In many cases, emissions generated by feed production alone exceed those of vegetable protein farming.
Nearly half of the earth’s usable land is devoted to industrial animal agriculture. Currently, we use an area equivalent to the combined size of North and South America to raise livestock and grow livestock feed.
The United Nations Convention to Combat Desertification has observed that commercial production of livestock and feed is a primary cause of deforestation. Deforestation reduces biodiversity and also destroys crucial storage reservoirs for carbon dioxide. Furthermore, industrialized farming pollutes water and soil with excessive deposits of nitrogen and phosphorus found in commercial fertilizers.
According to the most recent report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, we will not meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement without eating less meat. As per the EAT - Lancet report, global consumption of fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes must double, and American consumption of red meat and sugar must be cut by more than half. Both reports recommended a transition to plant-forward diets.
If you’re ready to make a change, Thistle can help.
Sustainability In Action
Here at Thistle, we strive to help people reconnect to nature through whole, sustainably derived foods.
To create our mouthwatering, plant-forward menu, Thistle partners with environmentally responsible local farmers, artisans and producers wherever possible. We strive for our dishes to showcase produce at its peak—-this means that many of our featured ingredients are sourced locally during seasonal harvests. By doing this, we help reduce food waste and protect local land from degradation at the hands of commercial agribusiness. Whenever we can, we support farmers in our community who share our sustainable ethos rather than producers thousands of miles away.
Our goal is to build a better food system, one meal at a time.
