Delivering better oral health suggests that for all adults and children we should "maintain good dietary practices in line with The Balance of Good Health." This is another example which demonstrates that by practicing evidence based dentistry we may also be able to contribute to global sustainability.
A new paper by Joseph Milner demonstrates how dietary change could significantly reduce the Greenhouse gas emissions of the average UK consumer. Joseph's paper shows if the "average UK dietary intake were optimised to comply with the WHO recommendations, he estimates an incidental reduction of 17% in GHG emissions. " Diets that are better for the environment contain fewer animal products and savoury snacks and morefruit, vegetables and cereals.
From a public health perspective Milner suggests that this change in diet would not only have health benefits by reducing GHG emissions, but also save almost 7 million years of life lost prematurely in the UK over the next 30 years, and increase average life expectancy by over 8 months.
As dental teams we already know the health and oral health benefits of reducing sugars and increasing fruit and vegetable intake- now we can convince our patients its also the right thing to do for the planet!
Read the full article, http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/5/4/e007364.full
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