University of California has published research that indicates the best way to impact our environment -- and perhaps even "save the planet" -- is through shifting from our meat-based diets to Mediterranean-style eating.

Importantly, they note that shifting to a Mediterranean dietary pattern would be a likelier behavior adjustment than going Vegetarian or Vegan, because Mediterranean-style eating doesn't entirely eliminate meat consumption. Rather Mediterranean-style eating simply encourages less meat consumption and puts it in balance with other foods -- and within a far healthier, good-for-you dietary pattern than a meat-based diet.

Think shish kababs! Yum.

Check out the University of California video which indicates that if society were to shift to a Mediterranean dietary pattern -- such as through Mediterranean Harvest For Life -- we could eliminate an amount of harmful emissions equivalent to taking 1 billion cars off the road. Critically important, this involves methane reduction, a Short-Lived Climate Pollutant, which could help counter findings published in the recent UN Intergovernmental Panel On Climate Change report noting that we really only have

12 years to get our climate act together.

Plus the shift to Mediterranean-style eating could also enable redirecting the current, inefficient use of 1 billion tons of grain now grown to feed livestock toward feeding 3.5 billion hungry and malnourished people.

Mediterranean-style eating is the only dietary regimen that can be so easily adopted and provides such cross-cutting benefits as reducing weight; averting chronic illnesses, their pain and their costs; increasing our longevity; cutting emissions; and enabling the feeding of our brothers and sisters around the world currently living without sufficient food.

As they say in Italy, "Chi mangia bene, viva bene." He who eats well lives well.