New report warns about health costs of westernized diets

The globalization of western eating habits is "bad for environmental health as well as human health," according to a study published Wednesday in the British scientific journal Nature.

Across the world, rising incomes and urbanization are driving a global transition from traditional plant-based diets to ones high in refined sugars, refined fats, oils and meat.

"This is bad for our health, increasing the incidence of type 2 diabetes, coronary heart disease and other chronic non-communicable diseases that lower global life expectancy," a team of researchers from Minnesota University in the United States said in their report.

These changes in diet also have negative impacts on the environment. According to the researchers, if dietary trends continue, by 2050 they will be a major contributor to an estimated 80 percent increase in global agricultural greenhouse gas emissions from food production.

Moreover, it could necessitate the clearing of around a billion additional hectares of the Earth's remaining land for agriculture.

"Solutions do exist," David Tilman, author of this report, said. "Alternative diets could, if widely adopted, reduce or even reverse environmental impacts and help to prevent a global epidemic of selected chronic diseases."

"However, it will be difficult to make people change their eating habits as diet is heavily influenced by culture, nutritional knowledge, price, availability, taste and convenience," the authors added.