Going Vegan Could Nearly Halve Your Diet's Carbon Footprint

Reducing your carbon footprint could start with your dinner. A new report, published in the journal Frontiers in Nutrition, suggests that going vegan could almost halve your diet’s carbon footprint. And it would still be highly nutritious. The researchers compared an omnivorous Mediterranean diet—which typically emphasizes plant-based eating along with lean proteins—to a pescatarian, ovo-lacto vegetarian, and vegan diet. They composed four, week-long menus that included breakfast, a mid-morning snack, lunch, and dinner.   The pescatarian meal plan substituted meat and its derivatives with plant based foods like tofu and textured soy protein, or animal-based foods allowed in the diet, like fish, eggs, and cheese, while the vegetarian allowed for eggs and dairy but no meat. The vegan menu replaced all animal-based foods, including meat, fish, eggs, and dairy, with plant-based alternatives like tofu and tempeh and plant-based beverages, soy yogurt, seeds, and legumes or legume flours. Greenhouse gas emissions dropped significantly with each dietary change. Total greenhouse gas emissions—accounting for how the food was grown or raised—dropped from 3.8kg (8.37 lbs) per day for the omnivorous diet, to 3.2kg (7.05 lbs) per day for the pescetarian diet, 2.6kg (5.73 lbs) per day for the ovo-lacto-vegetarian diet, to 2.1kg (4.6 lbs) per day for the vegan diet—a 46% decrease. What’s more, the diet changes contributed to a decrease in water use—the vegan diet used 33% less land and 7% less water during the production process.  Research has long shown that swapping animal products for a plant based diet can significantly reduce emissions. The meat and dairy industry account for between 12-19% of all global emissions—meat production alone makes up nearly 60% of the food sector’s climate emissions. But the new study shows that the dietary switch doesn’t have to come at the cost of essential nutrients.   In fact, a healthy, plant-based diet isn’t just good for the planet, it also comes with a number of health benefits—from preventing diabetes to reducing cholesterol and blood pressure. Researchers used a formula to calculate the energy and nutrient contribution for each food and day. The pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan diets all met nutritional standards—and the vegan menu provided a significantly higher amount of dietary fiber than the other three. However, the study notes that individuals following those diets might require supplemental vitamin D, iodine, and vitamin B12. If you wanted to follow the scientists’ menu planning for a nutrient-dense vegan diet, that would include swapping out 250 mL of milk and 125 grams of yogurt for 125 grams of soy-based yogurt and 250 mL of soy-based drink for breakfast each day, and swapping chicken for textured soy and beef with seitan for lunch or dinner. For additional nutrition, some sides that incorporate flax seeds and lentils are suggested. But there are ways to lower the carbon footprint of your eating habits without cutting out meat entirely. The report found that each substitution of a plant based alternative—whether it be replacing meat with fish, then with legumes, dairy and eggs, and finally adopting a fully vegan composition, resulted in a statistically meaningful reduction in environmental footprint. “You don’t need to go fully vegan to make a difference,” Noelia M. Rodríguez Martín, one of the study’s authors, said in a press release. “Even small steps toward a more plant-based diet reduce emissions and save resources. Every meal that includes more plants helps move us toward healthier people and a healthier planet.”