Healthcare (Commonwealth Union) – The world’s growing population, coupled with changing consumption patterns, has led to increasing demands on the global food system. This has resulted in a complex relationship between food production and the environment, with both positive and negative impacts. As we look towards the future, it is crucial to address these challenges and find innovative solutions to ensure food security while minimizing our ecological footprint.
A new study by researchers from UCL and the University of Oxford highlights that beans and peas are the most effective substitutes for meat and milk when considering nutrition, health benefits, environmental impact, and affordability.
Published in PNAS, the research reveals that legumes, including soybeans, peas, and beans, outperform processed alternatives like plant-based burgers and plant milks. In contrast, lab-grown meat ranked lowest due to minimal health advantages and high costs, even after factoring in potential future cost reductions.
The study advocates for policies and business strategies promoting the consumption of minimally processed alternatives to meat and dairy products.
Led by Dr. Marco Springmann from the UCL Institute for Global Health and the University of Oxford, the research integrated assessments of nutrition, health, environmental impact, and costs to evaluate various replacements for meat and milk.
The analysis included traditional options like tofu and tempeh, processed products such as veggie burgers, emerging options like cultured meat, and unprocessed foods like soybeans and peas.
The results demonstrate that unprocessed plant-based foods, such as soybeans, peas, and beans, are the most effective replacements for meat and dairy. Incorporating legumes into diets could cut nutritional imbalances in high-income regions like the UK, US, and Europe by 50% and reduce diet-related disease mortality by 10%.
Moreover, transitioning to diets centered on legumes could slash greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water consumption by over 50%, while cutting costs by more than a third.
Dr. Springmann highlighted that cutting back on meat and dairy consumption in wealthier nations is crucial for addressing climate change, protecting biodiversity, and enhancing health outcomes. He noted that the study identifies a variety of food options that can offer significant advantages when used as substitutes for meat and dairy in modern diets.
Although not the most impactful choice, processed plant-based options like veggie burgers and plant-based milks still provided notable benefits as alternatives. However, their reductions in emissions and improvements to health were 20-33% less effective compared to unprocessed legumes, and they were about 10% more expensive than current diets.
Dr Springmann said “Unprocessed legumes such as peas and beans were the clear winner in our assessment. They performed well from all perspectives, including nutritional, health, environmental, and cost. But a surprising runner-up was tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans, which retains much of the nutritional properties of soybeans without much processing or additives. This and the relatively low cost gave it an edge over more processed alternatives such as veggie burgers.”
An unexpected revelation emerged regarding lab-grown meat. Despite significant uncertainties, current data indicate it is not a viable competitor—even to conventional meat. With current technology, its emissions can rival those of beef burgers, while costs are up to 40,000 times higher. Furthermore, its health impacts, when mimicking beef, appear equally concerning.
While improvements in production efficiency could reduce both emissions and costs, achieving this would necessitate considerable investment and major technological advancements.
Dr Springmann also said “Public investments in both lab-grown meat and ultra-processed burger patties look like tough sells when considering their relative impacts and available alternatives. Our findings suggest that suitable alternatives to meat and milk exist and are available and affordable without necessarily requiring new technologies or product development. What is required, however, are prudent public policies that support all citizens in eating healthy and sustainable meals.”
