McMichael Anthony J, Powles John W, Butler Colin D, Uauy Ricardo
National Centre for Epidemiology and Population Health, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia.
Lancet. 2007 Oct 6;370(9594):1253-63. doi: 10.1016/S0140-6736(07)61256-2.
Food provides energy and nutrients, but its acquisition requires energy expenditure. In post-hunter-gatherer societies, extra-somatic energy has greatly expanded and intensified the catching, gathering, and production of food. Modern relations between energy, food, and health are very complex, raising serious, high-level policy challenges. Together with persistent widespread under-nutrition, over-nutrition (and sedentarism) is causing obesity and associated serious health consequences. Worldwide, agricultural activity, especially livestock production, accounts for about a fifth of total greenhouse-gas emissions, thus contributing to climate change and its adverse health consequences, including the threat to food yields in many regions. Particular policy attention should be paid to the health risks posed by the rapid worldwide growth in meat consumption, both by exacerbating climate change and by directly contributing to certain diseases. To prevent increased greenhouse-gas emissions from this production sector, both the average worldwide consumption level of animal products and the intensity of emissions from livestock production must be reduced. An international contraction and convergence strategy offers a feasible route to such a goal. The current global average meat consumption is 100 g per person per day, with about a ten-fold variation between high-consuming and low-consuming populations. 90 g per day is proposed as a working global target, shared more evenly, with not more than 50 g per day coming from red meat from ruminants (ie, cattle, sheep, goats, and other digastric grazers).
食物提供能量和营养，但获取食物需要消耗能量。在狩猎采集社会之后的时期，体外能量极大地扩展并强化了食物的捕获、采集和生产。现代社会中能量、食物和健康之间的关系非常复杂，引发了严峻的、高层次的政策挑战。与持续广泛存在的营养不良现象并存的是，营养过剩（以及久坐不动的生活方式）正导致肥胖及相关的严重健康后果。在全球范围内，农业活动，尤其是畜牧业生产，约占温室气体排放总量的五分之一，从而加剧了气候变化及其对健康的不利影响，包括对许多地区粮食产量的威胁。应特别关注全球肉类消费迅速增长所带来的健康风险，这既会加剧气候变化，又会直接导致某些疾病。为防止该生产部门温室气体排放增加，必须降低全球动物产品的平均消费水平以及畜牧业生产的排放强度。国际收缩与趋同战略为实现这一目标提供了一条可行途径。目前全球人均肉类消费量为每天100克，高消费人群和低消费人群之间的消费量相差约十倍。建议将每天90克作为全球的一个可行目标，并更平均地分配，其中来自反刍动物（即牛、羊、山羊和其他双胃食草动物）的红肉消费量每天不超过50克。
