Health Tips

Or more broadly, how can we feed the entire planet a healthy and sustainable diet? For the last three years, 37 of the world’s best scientists have been working on this question, and they now have the answer! The EAT-Lancet report offers the first-ever target for a food system that works for the people AND saves the planet at the same time.

So how does this diet look like?

Well, approximately half of your daily intake (illustrated on a plate in the figure below) should be vegetables and fruits; while the other half should be primarily whole grains, plant protein sources, unsaturated plant oils, and (optionally) modest amounts of animal sources of protein.

Diving in a bit deeper using “nasi lemak” terms, the diet suggests that each day we should only have:

• 232 grams (g) whole grains – equivalent to about one cup of cooked rice
• 300g vegetables – basically all-you-can-eat cucumber, lemongrass and pandan leaves
• 13g egg – which means one egg every five days; an egg weighs approximately 60grams.
• 28g fish – about one serving of sambal ikan bilis
• 50g nuts – two servings of peanuts used in nasi lemak
• 12g saturated fats – approximately quarter cup of coconut cream
• 31g sugar – about twice the amount of sugar used in nasi lemak

Which means…..you can have one packet of nasi lemak per day!! (but without the egg at times)

Knowing Malaysians who like to feast on a million types of food, I think the onus is on me to clarify that if you have a packet of nasi lemak a day, you are NOT supposed to have char kuey teow, pisang goreng, roti canai, nasi kandar, fried popiah, murtabak, satay, rojak, ikan bakar, mee kari, ayam percik and so on.

Likewise, do not indulge in sweet drinks or desserts like teh tarik, sirap bandung, cendol, ais kacang etc.

Great, now I’m drooling. Mamak anyone?

References

1. The EAT-Lancet Commission on Food, Planet, Health. Available from: https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/
2. Poh’s nasi lemak. Available from: https://www.sbs.com.au/food/recipes/pohs-nasi-lemak

Image credit

1. https://dosinghealth.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/Nasi-lemak-save-the-earth.png
2. https://pixabay.com/photos/tree-green-leaves-spring-season-773736/
3. The EAT–Lancet Commission’s Planetary Health Plate. Available at https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/
4. EAT-Lancet Commission. Available at https://eatforum.org/eat-lancet-commission/
5. https://pixabay.com/photos/food-nasi-lemak-asia-malaysia-658715/

In collaboration with Dosing Health.

Written by

Renly Lim