According to the National Geographic, the Netherlands Nutrition Centre is recommending people eat just two servings of meat a week (<500 g/week), setting an explicit limit on meat consumption for the first time. The recommendations come five years after a government panel weighed the ecological impact of the average Dutch person’s diet, concluding last year that eating less meat is better for human and environmental health.
The government-funded program responsible for making food-based dietary guidelines took those conclusions and presented them in its “Wheel of Five”—a graphic distributed to the public, along the lines of the U.S. government’s “MyPlate.”
Of the 500 g, only 300 g should be red, or “high-carbon” meat. In fact, the guidelines suggest getting protein from other sources, like one 25-g portion of unsalted nuts a day and one 135-g portion of pulses a week. The seafood recommendations were also changed from two portions to one portion a week due to sustainability issues.
Other countries that have included sustainability into their nutrition advice, or have seriously contemplated doing so, include Germany, Australia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom.
