THE ESSENTIAL
- Beans, soy and peas are the best substitutes for meat and dairy from a nutritional, health and environmental perspective.
- Processed plant-based foods, such as veggie burgers and plant-based milks, have substantial benefits.
- On the other hand, lab-grown beef is not a good product due to the lack of health benefits and high costs.
We know: it is essential to reduce the consumption of meat and dairy products to limit climate change, the loss of biodiversity and improve health. “Many alternatives have been evaluated, but the analyzes are rarely combined in a coherent manner, limiting the ability to identify benefits and harms,” according to researchers from UCL and the University of Oxford (UK). This is why they decided to carry out a study to identify the best substitutes for meat and dairy products.
Health, environment: “peas, soya and beans obtained the best results”
For the purposes of research, published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS)the team did an assessment of 24 food alternatives, which integrated nutritional, health, environmental and cost analyses, with a focus on high-income countries. The list of products examined includes plant-based milks, veggie burgers, tofu, soy, peas, tempeh, beans and lab-grown beef.
“Unprocessed plant-based foods, such as peas, soy and beans, scored highest in our assessment across all areas,” can we read in the results. According to the authors, preferring legumes to meat and milk would make it possible to halve nutritional imbalances in countries like the United States and Europe, and to divide mortality due to diseases linked to it by ten. food. At the same time, the environmental impacts of diets, such as greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use, would fall by more than half and costs by more than a third.
Replacing meats and dairy with processed, plant-based foods has health benefits
In comparison, processed plant-based products, such as veggie burgers, tempeh, and plant-based milks, were associated with lower climate benefits and higher costs than unprocessed foods, but still offered environmental benefits, substantial health and nutritional benefits compared to products of animal origin. For lab-grown beef, it was found to be the worst substitute due to lack of health benefits and high costs, even after taking into account cost reductions and potential investments.
“Our results suggest that there are suitable alternatives to meat and milk, which are available and affordable without necessarily requiring new technologies or new product development. What is needed, however, are recommendations and public measures that help all citizens eat healthy and sustainable meals”concluded Marco Springmann, who led the work.
