Environmental implications of healthier eating

In the run up to Christmas, shops are bursting at the seams with delicious treats, appealing platters and indulgent morsals, which can make sticking to a healthy diet rather unlikely. And food consumption has consequences for our “waist” in more ways than one! According to the Food and Agricultural Organisation of the UN, over a third of all the food made globally each year goes un-used, that’s around 1.3 billion tonnes. But could adhering to a healthier diet in the food we do eat make a difference to the environment? Paul Behrens and colleagues from Lieden University in the Netherlands have set out to answer this question, and Katie Haylor’s been finding out how.