Human health & wellbeing | TableDebates

Livestock-derived foods and sustainable healthy diet

Livestock-derived foods and sustainable healthy diet

This discussion paper from UN Nutrition examines the role that livestock can play in contributing to nutrition, particularly for young children and in low-income settings, and the impacts of livestock on the environment. It aims to go beyond blanket messages about livestock-derived food and instead provide a nuanced overview of how the role of livestock in sustainable healthy diets depends on local context and specific production methods. It concludes that some groups of people - such as those already eating high levels of livestock-derived foods - could improve both health and environmental impacts by reducing their consumption.

More Healthy Years cover

More Healthy Years: The Mediterranean diet

This book by Table member Richard Hoffman (Lecturer in Nutritional Biochemistry at the University of Hertfordshire) argues that the Mediterranean diet is beneficial for both health and the environment. It offers tips for eating healthily in an obesogenic environment.

Foodsource

What is the connection between infectious diseases in humans and livestock?

Diseases that pass between animals and humans are responsible for many of the diseases affecting people worldwide, especially in developing countries. Animals (wild and domestic) also play an important role in the emergence and spread of entirely novel human diseases, with the potential for large impacts on human health, such as bird flu. Another aspect of this to which livestock contribute, is the rise and spread of resistance to antibiotic drugs. One outcome of sustainable food systems is that they should be health promoting. It is, therefore, useful to understand the interconnection between infectious diseases in human and animals, and how these risks may be amplified or reduced by changes in farming systems.