The Impacts of Traditional Eastern Diet on the Community Health and Environment Sustainability

Abstract

Traditional Eastern diets are often based on grains, beans, and other healthful foods. It is usually low in red meat and rich in whole grains, vegetables, fruits, and seafood [1]. According to the World Health Organization, a healthy diet includes fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, whole grains, meat, fish, eggs, and milk. Each intake varies depending on individual characteristics such as age, gender, lifestyle, and level of physical activity. A healthy diet is essential because it provides a balanced diet to protect against many chronic non-communicable diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes, and cancer [2]. Healthy and sustainable food choices contribute to a series of Sustainable Development Goals, including SDG 2, SDG 3, SDG 11, and SDG 12. These goals are to ensure food security, an improvement in health and well-being, sustainable cities, and communities, and lastly, responsible consumption and production [3].   The aim of this study is to emphasize the impact of the Traditional Eastern diet on human health and the impact on environmental sustainability.   An in-depth narrative literature review of the Traditional Eastern diet's health and environmental effects was conducted using secondary data collected from journals and conference proceedings using the keywords "Eastern diet", "Western diet", "environmental impact of food", "health impact of food", "globalization impact on food choices" and "food shifting".   This review highlights the results of studies that prove that there are various positive and negative effects stemming from human daily diets. Eastern traditional diets have a variety of positive effects on human health such as able to reduce weight, reducing cholesterol levels, reducing blood glucose, reducing blood pressure, reducing the risk of colon cancer, and protecting against inflammation. The Traditional Eastern diet has a positive impact on the environment such as lower carbon emissions. However, there are still some negative effects of this food on the environment such as increased species extinction, eutrophication, global warming, acidification, water footprint, and land footprint even though it is not as bad as the consumption of unprocessed red meat food source. Table 1 shows the impact of food on the health and environment of the Eastern Traditional diet. In conclusion, while traditional Eastern diets also have positive health effects, reviews do not show significant differences in their environmental impact. Therefore, further study should be done to assess the environmental impact of traditional Eastern diet choices. This is because the choice of food consumed is very important for the environment to maintain its sustainability.