Plant based foods are a hot topic as consumers look for ways to reduce their carbon footprint. Agriculture, especially livestock, produces carbon emissions and so the obvious change to make is to reduce or eliminate eating meat.
Why do we need to move to plant based foods?
Greenhouse gas emissions are driving climate change and the focus is on what needs to change. Although transport is the largest emitting sector in the UK at 26%, followed by energy, business, and residential emissions (20, 28, 16% respectively), agriculture has had a lot of media attention. The methane from enteric fermentation of livestock like cattle and nitrous oxide emissions from fertilisers contribute most (86% of the 11% from agriculture) (Gov.uk).
There are two good reasons for eating less meat: 1) a reduction in demand for meat will mean less need for livestock and crop farming and thus less emissions, and 2) eating more vegetables is better for our health.
What’s the alternative to eating meat?
Our supermarkets are full of plant based alternatives for everything from cheese to mayonnaise. There are plant based burgers, sausages, ‘chicken’ nuggets, bacon, and kebabs. Dairy free alternatives include nut milks, vegetable spreads and starch based ‘cheeses’. So it should be easy for any household to swap from eating meat to going plant based.
The trouble with processed foods
If the move to plant based foods is on health grounds, there is a problem with these alternatives. The trouble with processed foods is that they are not necessarily better for our health than their meat based counterparts.
A quick look at the list of ingredients for a plant based sausage revealed oils, thickeners, additives and flavourings added to textured (processed) plant proteins.
“Some of those products, even though they contain high amounts of plant-based protein, may also contain unhealthy ingredients, such as high amounts of sodium or unhealthy fats. Being plant-based doesn’t necessarily mean it’s healthier.” – Frank Hu, Fredrick J. Stare Professor of Nutrition and Epidemiology and chair of the Department of Nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health
Eating better
A better way to eat less meat would be to eat raw and freshly prepared vegetables in larger quantities. This is not convenient and would require a lifestyle change and a mindset change in consumers.
Making sure that every meal includes at least half vegetables, together with whole grains and healthy proteins. On a vegan or plant based diet healthy proteins include beans and nuts. Use health fats e.g. olive oil. And on a vegan diet, supplements may be needed to maintain health. In an EPIC-Oxford study, 75% of vegans did not get the daily calcium they required.
In an ideal world, the vegetables that we eat will be organic, locally sourced, and not transported halfway around the world or wrapped in plastic but the UK relies heavily on imported food as we only produce 60% of what we consume (Gov.uk).
Plant based foods
Natural and organic plant based foods that are eaten raw or freshly cooked are good for our health and for our planet. However processed foods are bad for us whether they are meat-based or plant-based, so care must be taken when choosing plant based foods to feed our family.
