The Greenprint. Marco Borges

The way we’re living just isn’t sustainable.

       Not for us.

       Not for the planet.

      And that’s where the Greenprint movement comes in. It offers an extraordinary plan for how to eat to get fit and healthy with foods that are greener for the Earth and better for you. What is unique about the Greenprint is that it gives you the essential steps you need to start thriving on plant-based eating and take it as far as you want to go to achieve all your health and weight-loss goals. You will discover the most effective way to transform your body and your life through plant-based eating, one meal at a time. The twenty-two Greenprint laws provide plenty of advice and inspiration, and you can begin to apply them one law at a time.

      Along the way, you’ll find a better way of eating and living – and one that significantly contributes to the health and sustainability of the Earth. You’ll even be able to see tangible proof that your choices work: I’ll give you a fun and easy tool to calculate your personal impact on the planet. So rest assured, you’re about to go on an amazing journey with me, one that will help you live a longer, better life and make the world more liveable for future generations.

      Before I elaborate, I bet you’re wondering, What’s a ‘greenprint’?

      A greenprint is a measure of the impact of our food choices on our weight and overall health and on our planet. For example, let’s say you switch to a 100 per cent plant-based diet (I hope you do). The impact – the greenprint – of this change on your health can be measured in years: studies show that plant-based people, particularly if they don’t smoke and drink only a little, if any, alcohol, live four to seven years longer than people whose diets include animal products. It can also be measured in positive changes in health parameters: lower blood pressure, lower blood lipids, lower blood sugar and lower weight. With regard to weight, on average, those who consume a plant-based diet are naturally 9 kilos lighter than their meat-eating counterparts.

      As for your personal greenprint on the planet, it can be colossal. You can save animals, for example. Those that are raised for human consumption do not have great lives. Even if they are raised organically and are free range, they have short lives with not much freedom. If you and your family ditch meat, dairy and eggs, you can save two hundred animals a year, according to PETA.

      From an environmental standpoint, expanding your greenprint through plant-based living saves an amazing amount of energy. We’re all guilty of taking our sources of energy for granted. Just 1 calorie of animal protein requires 8.5 times more energy to raise than 1 calorie of protein from grains – incredible! That’s not even counting how much rain forest is cut down to create grazing land for animals each year.

      HERE’S ANOTHER WAY TO LOOK AT IT: The Greenprint is the dietary version of a ‘carbon footprint’ – the impact people and companies have on the environment, in terms of the greenhouse gases they have directly or indirectly caused, measured in units of carbon dioxide. CO2 is a major polluter and dramatically harms our environment by adding to the greenhouse effect and causing global warming. The Greenprint measures how your food choices impact your health as well as clears away your carbon footprint.

      By following a plant-based diet, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 1,560 kilos of carbon dioxide equivalents annually. This is a bigger reduction than if you switched from driving a gas-guzzling SUV to a hybrid-electric Prius.

      You can even make a huge impact with the most incremental changes in your diet. Even if you ate one less hamburger a week for one year, this would be the equivalent of driving 320 fewer miles.

      So just think of the impact on the environment if everyone in the country cut their meat intake by half and made up the difference with wholesome plant foods, such as whole grains, legumes, vegetables, fruits, nuts and seeds. That’s why embracing meatless menus can mean a lot to our Earth – even if it’s not every meal or every day.

      Healthwise, your greenprint has an extraordinary impact on your health. Let me give a rundown of just some of the health-building benefits of plant foods. Research has shown that plant-based eating, and this plan in particular:

       Takes off kilos rapidly and consistently, plus prevents overweight and obesity because plant foods make you feel fuller with fewer calories

       Fights diabetes. One in three adults now has diabetes or prediabetes, and it’s one of the leading causes of death.

       Keeps your heart healthy by lowering cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension, clogged arteries and abnormal clot formation

       Naturally detoxifies your body against cancer-causing agents

       Eases arthritis and joint pain

       Strengthens your immune system so that you rarely become ill

       Boosts your memory and wards off dementia

       Preserves your vision and protects your eyes from cataracts and macular degeneration

       Makes your skin, hair and nails glow

      That’s the power of plants!

      BIRTH OF A PLANT-BASED REVOLUTION

      My greenprint is about what I eat, the choices I make and how I conduct my life. As a father of four, I know that my choices now will affect my children’s health and the Earth they will inherit in the future.

      The development of the Greenprint programme is something that evolved from deep within my family history. I grew up in the 70s and have so many amazing memories of my youth. My mum raised my brother, sister and me as a single parent, and we’d see our father every other week or so.

      We spent a lot of time at my grandmother’s house. Mima, as we called her, was so funny, and it wasn’t even deliberate. She would say or do something on a daily basis that would immediately cause us to crack up. Then she’d look at us and ask why we were laughing (‘De que se ríen?’), which would make us laugh even more.

      My brother, Alfredo, whom I called Tito from an early age because I couldn’t pronounce Alfredito (it’s quite common in Spanish culture to add –ito to the end of a kid’s name to make it more youthful), would love going over to Mima’s house because he knew it would always be an adventure. I can still hear the ice cream truck driving by with its jingle playing over a loudspeaker. An almost orchestrated scream coming from the neighbourhood kids would follow – ‘El heladero!!!! El heladero!!!!’ (‘The ice cream man!!! The ice cream man!!!’) – and everyone would run outside with loose change, chasing the truck. Often, the driver would act like he didn’t see us all running behind the truck. He would drive what felt like a few extra blocks (actually just a few extra feet), then he’d laugh along with us as we caught our breath and placed our orders. What amazing times.

      Mima didn’t drive, but she loved to get out. I can remember walking for hours every day as we visited all the shops, bodegas and houses she would take us to.

      It was nonstop at Mima’s house. She’d make us a homemade lunch (usually something with chicken), and it was always delicious. Around lunchtime, she’d also always take all these tiny little pills.