People who want to eat less meat and dairy would be better off switching to beans and peas rather than opting for veggie burgers and plant-based milks, according to a study by the University of Oxford.
Experts analyzed several factors when considering 24 alternatives to meat and milk, including their impact on health, the environment and their cost.
They found that natural plant-based foods, such as peas, soy, and beans, performed best in all domains.
In comparison, processed foods such as veggie burgers, meat substitutes, tofu and tempeh, and plant milks were associated with fewer climate benefits and higher cost than unprocessed foods, although they were still better than animal products.
At the bottom of the list was lab-grown meat, which is not yet sold in the UK for human consumption.
In an article in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS), researchers from Oxford and University College London suggested that replacing all meat or dairy in high-income countries with the same calories from alternatives to meat meat or milk could reduce premature death by up to 5 percent to 6 percent
‘Among meat alternatives, the largest reductions were for peas (6.1 percent), followed by tempeh, beans and soy (5.1 percent to 5.7 percent), veggie burgers and tofu (4 percent to 4.3 percent) and vegetable sausages and vegetable bacon (3.5 percent to 3.6 percent),’ they said.
“Among dairy alternatives, the largest reductions were for soy (5.2 percent), followed by almond milk.”
There are hundreds of different “fake meat” products on the market today, most of which are made from genetically modified proteins.
Most changes in the odds of death were linked to increases in fiber (44 percent), which is good for health, followed by reductions in areas such as bad cholesterol, as well as increases in healthy fats and the mineral potassium.
The researchers said that if all the calories from meat or dairy were replaced with alternatives, then people would tend to have a diet lower in fat and more fiber.
On climate, experts said the livestock sector is responsible for the majority of all food-related greenhouse gas emissions and about 20 percent of greenhouse gas emissions overall.
‘Without dietary shifts towards more plant-based diets, the environmental impacts of the food system are expected to pose serious challenges to efforts to keep global warming below 2°C and could exceed other key planetary boundaries they seek to define. a safe operating space for humanity in a stable Earth system,” they stated.
They added: ‘Our findings suggest that unprocessed plant foods, such as soy, peas and beans, are best suited to replace meat and dairy in high-income countries, and performed well across all dimensions.
“In comparison, processed plant-based foods, such as plant-based burgers and plant-based milks, were associated with fewer climate benefits and higher costs than unprocessed foods, but still offered important environmental, health and nutritional benefits in compared to foods of animal origin.
The team concluded that choosing legumes instead of meat and milk would halve “nutritional imbalances” in high-income countries like the UK, premature death (particularly from diet-related diseases) by a tenth, environmental impact of diets by more than half and costs more than a third.
Dr Marco Springmann, from the Oxford Environmental Change Institute, who led the study, said: “Reducing meat and dairy in high-income countries is essential to limit climate change, biodiversity loss and improve health. .
“Our study shows that there are a variety of foods and food products that would have multiple benefits when replacing meat and dairy in current diets.”