Welcome to the SCPN e-digest (Issue 5)

COP26 has dominated the headlines for the last few weeks and the impact of climate change needs to remain high on everyone’s agenda for years to come. Every nation, society and population needs to bring about changes in their ways of life to reduce carbon emissions now. Our food intake must be a key part of this strategy notably healthy eating patterns with significantly less meat and more vegetable based diets. The good news around this approach is that it can also be a cost saving. In a new  new paper published in the Lancet  healthy and sustainable dietary patterns were up to 22–34% lower in cost in upper-middle-income to high-income countries.

The pandemic forced a huge reduction in global travel, and with the daily commute no longer necessary we travelled less often away from home. We learnt how to ‘staycation’ in Scotland. This huge shift needs to be a lesson for us moving forward on what can be achieved when we work together, to travel responsibly and to walk/bike more. A conscious drive for healthier lifestyles could see a reduction in our cancer risk and improve our overall health and wellbeing.

Health of the individual, health of the planet and cost savings…now we need cultural change for a new year and for our millennium. Let’s be part of the change we want to see.