The UK is being urged to go nuts for
the environment by swapping burgers for bags of nuts on Monday
October 22nd to celebrate National Nut Day.
National Nut Day in the UK is promoted
by Liberation Foods CIC, the pioneering farmer-owned Fairtrade nut
company. October 22nd is well-established as National Nut Day in
the USA and the organisers want Britain to ‘go nuts’ in the same
way!
This year’s focus is on switching to
nuts to help the environment. If we in the UK eat less meat and
highly processed veggie foods – our planet will benefit.. This will
keep a lid on greenhouse gasses and won’t use up our valuable land
resources.
For people who already eat plenty of
meat and dairy products such as most people in rich countries, nuts
and ‘nutty’ legumes – like Brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts and
walnuts - are a good nutritional alternative to meat says Dr Donal
Murphy-Bokern, independent agri-environmental scientist and author of
several studies on food system impacts.
“One of the keys to sustaining our
planet is for those of us in the richer half of the world to switch
some meat consumption to relatively unprocessed plant-based products
such as nuts,” says Dr Murphy-Bokern.
“For every calorie consumed, the
greenhouse gas emissions from the production of the meat and dairy
component of our diets is nearly four times that of
plant-based components.
“Cattle and sheep release large
quantities of methane gas as they digest their feed. And livestock
generally require 4 – 8 kg plant protein in their feed for every
kilogram of protein produced. The overall result is that much
more resources are used in meat-based diets, and very significant
pollution problems are caused to our air and water by livestock
farms.”
Dr Murphy-Bokern believes that when we
reduce our meat consumption we often tend to replace some of it with
other high protein foods such as nuts.
Both meat and nuts have the pleasant
savoury taste described by the Japanese as umami – the fifth basic
taste after sweet, salty, sour and bitter.
“Just as we seek some sweetness in
diets, it is reasonable to speculate that people naturally migrate
from one ‘umami’ taste to another, so when cutting down on meat
they are likely to transfer to nuts or another umami food,” says Dr
Murphy-Bokern.
“Using plant-based ingredients high
in umami is a feature of traditional cuisines which are low in meat.
Reducing meat consumption by half in the average ‘western’
diet is not difficult - and nuts are a high protein and
environmentally friendly option.”
National Nut Day celebrates all that is
great about eating nuts. As well as being a delicious snack and
cooking ingredient, nuts are:
Highly nutritious – a source of
vital fatty acids, omega fats, protein and many vitamins and
minerals.
Good for the environment –
switching our main source of protein from meat to nuts whenever we
can helps to reduce carbon emissions. In addition the trade in
Brazil nuts helps to preserve the Amazon rainforest.
Good for the soil - legumes
such as peanuts bring vital nitrogen to replenish the soil as
they grow.
Good for our health – the UK
Government’s Chief Medical Officer says 18,000 premature deaths
from heart disease would be avoided every year if we cut our meat
consumption by half. Nuts are a good value form of protein which can
help us do this.
–Available as Fairtrade! UK nut
lovers can now buy Fairtrade Brazil nuts, cashews, peanuts, walnuts
and almonds in many supermarkets including Tesco, Sainsbury’s,
Morrisons and Waitrose plus other outlets.. This means the farmers
and gatherers are protected by the guaranteed fair deal which comes
with Fairtrade.
National Nut Day is supported by The
Vegetarian Society, The Vegan Society, Sustain – the alliance for
better food and farming, the Sustainable Restaurant Association, and
more.
Celebrity supporters include chef,
broadcaster and food writer Allegra McEvedy, foodie and home expert
Aggie MacKenzie and peanut devotee Harry Hill.
(EDITOR: That's Food and Drink would like to add a word of caution: If you have a medical condition (diabetic, an allergy condition, etc.) it is advisable to seek medical advice before commencing on any dietary change, no matter how well-meaning, as outlined in this article.)
