Pegan Diet – What Is The Pegan Diet? | Goop
The biggest problem right now is that the majority of our diet in America, and increasingly around the world, is ultraprocessed industrial food that is grown in ways that destroy the environment, the climate, and our health. It’s a pattern that’s leading to catastrophic consequences for humanity and the planet.
Six out of ten Americans have a chronic illness—heart disease, diabetes, cancer, dementia, you name it—related to our ultraprocessed diet. About 88 percent of us are metabolically unhealthy, meaning nearly nine out of ten of us are somewhere on the diabetic spectrum. The economic burden of that is staggering: One out of every five dollars in our entire economy goes toward health care. And 80 percent of that is spent treating chronic disease that’s almost entirely triggered by food.
Our industrial food system is also at the root of many social and health inequities. It disproportionately targets poor and minority communities, strapping them with countless consequences, from widespread chronic health problems to threatening future economic competitiveness. (For example: Diets based in processed foods hinder children’s ability to focus, learn, and perform academically.)
The ecological consequences are catastrophic. We’ve depleted our fresh water resources, damaged our aquatic and terrestrial ecosystems, and wiped out species of pollinators, livestock, and edible plants in favor of growing massive swaths of corn, wheat, and soy. Our food system, end to end, is the number one cause of climate change, driving about 50 percent of all climate consequences; that includes the effects of deforestation, factory farming and animal agriculture, soil loss, transportation, storage, refrigeration, food waste, and more.
