Sigma Nutrition Radio #584: EAT-Lancet: Does the Planetary Health Diet Improve Human Health?
Nov 18, 2025
Alan Flanagan, a nutrition researcher and clinician, dives into the 2025 EAT-Lancet update, scrutinizing the balance between human health and environmental sustainability. He discusses the flexibility and practicality of the Planetary Health Diet, which emphasizes plant-based eating with specific nutrient targets. Alan highlights research linking adherence to this diet with reduced mortality and decreased diabetes risk. He advocates for pragmatic dietary changes while stressing the need for policy-driven guidance rather than strict personal limitations.
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What The Planetary Health Diet Is
- The Planetary Health Diet (PHD) is a plant-predominant pattern with 14 food components and specific gram-based ranges per 2400 kcal.
- Alan Flanagan stresses it combines human health aims with environmental impact constraints, making it unique versus other diet scores.
The Diet Feels Restrictive Not Expansive
- The PHD often sets low upper limits for many foods, including animal and some plant proteins, creating a broadly restrictive pattern.
- Flanagan argues this makes the PHD unlike other healthy diet scores that reward increased intake rather than impose tight caps.
Flexibility Is Theoretical, Not Always Practical
- PHD ranges can be interpreted as weekly averages to allow flexibility, but many daily servings still risk exceeding limits.
- Flanagan notes the flexibility is theoretical because tight ranges across many groups require careful planning to follow.