Next Gen
You are What You Eat: The Role of Food in Our Lives
Changing what and how we eat can benefit both ourselves and our planet.
We all have up to 100 trillion cells in our bodies, each one demanding nutrients to function. Food affects all of these cells, and by extension, every aspect of our being: mood, energy levels, thinking capacity and sleeping habits.
Recent research has shown that the brain and the gut are intimately connected. A person’s stomach can be the cause as well as the product of anxiety and stress. What we eat has changed the planet. Forests have been devastated to rear cattle and grow crops, while the oceans become barren as they are trawled and over-fished. Food production does not only contribute to climate change, it is also the greatest single driver of wildlife loss.
As more meat is eaten across the planet, greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture and food production – which already account for about a third of the overall total – could rise by as much as 80 percent between now and 2050.
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