How Can We Eat Healthily While Respecting the Environment? By Anthony Berthou - OH Summit, France

Why It Matters

Integrating environmental and health criteria into nutrition guidance reshapes consumer habits, reduces disease risk, and supports sustainable food systems.

Key Takeaways

• Nutrition must balance health, ecology, toxicity, and social ethics.
• Films complement audio/writing for effective scientific food communication.
• Basic nutrition education should start in schools and medical curricula.
• Ultra‑processed foods now supply 60‑65% of children’s calories.
• Visual clips, like the 18‑million‑view Spanish video, drive child awareness.

Summary

At the OH Summit, Anthony Berthou argued that eating healthily cannot be divorced from ecological, toxicological and social considerations. He highlighted the confusion consumers face when nutrition advice ignores these dimensions.

Berthou stressed that scientific communication—especially film—can bridge the gap, offering a vivid complement to audio and text. He called for basic nutrition curricula in schools and medical training to give people a common foundation before tackling macro‑ and micronutrients.

He cited a 2025 study showing 60‑65 % of calories in some Western children come from ultra‑processed foods, whose micronutrient density is low. A Spanish‑language music video produced for the WHO festival, now with 18 million YouTube views, illustrates how visual media can educate kids about whole‑food choices.

The message implies that policymakers, educators and food producers must prioritize whole, minimally processed foods and integrate sustainability metrics into dietary guidelines, lest public health and the planet suffer.

Original Description

Anthony Berthou, Nutritionist specializing in systemic food issues, author and columnist on France Inter, spoke about health education with short films during the One Health Summit in Lyon, France, on 6 April 2026. He highlighted the need for more films popularizing the science, as well as radio programmes and books, for a better understanding of he balance between healthy diet with food production conditions respecting the overall One Health concept between humans, animals and ecosystems.

WHO's Health for All Film Festival (HAFF) proposed this film screening with panel discussion to attendees of the Summit and the wider audience in the city who could join the UGC Cinema Cite International. This session held by WHO was prepared with the support of the OH Quadripartite Collaboration (FAO, UNEP, WHO, WOAH). Nine short films from the playlist below were screening covering the major topics of the OH Summit (nutrition and food safety, AMR, pollutions, zoonoses). The panel discussions about the films gathered more scientists both renown in these OH domains or from the young generation of researchers: Serge Morand, Chadia Wannous, Anthony Berthou, Katrina Di Bacco, Jessica Lopes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHs0GyLNSLg&list=PL9S6xGsoqIBUCi5xZ_qBrWi-1jfQoZTit&index=1

https://www.who.int/news-room/events/detail/2026/04/06/default-calendar/film-screening-and-discussion-on-education-for-a-balance-between-animal--plant-and-human-health---one-health-world-summit