• Sunshine (she/her)@lemmy.caOP
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    2 months ago

    Eating a vegan diet could be the “single biggest way” to reduce your environmental impact on earth, a new study suggests.

    Researchers at the University of Oxford found that cutting meat and dairy products from your diet could reduce an individual’s carbon footprint from food by up to 73 per cent.

    Source

    It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes. Plant-based diets are more environmentally sustainable than diets rich in animal products because they use fewer natural resources and are associated with much less environmental damage. Vegetarians and vegans are at reduced risk of certain health conditions, including ischemic heart disease, type 2 diabetes, hypertension, certain types of cancer, and obesity. Low intake of saturated fat and high intakes of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, soy products, nuts, and seeds (all rich in fiber and phytochemicals) are characteristics of vegetarian and vegan diets that produce lower total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and better serum glucose control. These factors contribute to reduction of chronic disease. Vegans need reliable sources of vitamin B-12, such as fortified foods or supplements.

    Source 2

    The production of animal-based foods is associated with higher greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions than plant-based foods. The objective of this study was to estimate the difference in dietary GHG emissions between self-selected meat-eaters, fish-eaters, vegetarians and vegans in the UK. Subjects were participants in the EPIC-Oxford cohort study. The diets of 2,041 vegans, 15,751 vegetarians, 8,123 fish-eaters and 29,589 meat-eaters aged 20–79 were assessed using a validated food frequency questionnaire. Comparable GHG emissions parameters were developed for the underlying food codes using a dataset of GHG emissions for 94 food commodities in the UK, with a weighting for the global warming potential of each component gas. The average GHG emissions associated with a standard 2,000 kcal diet were estimated for all subjects. ANOVA was used to estimate average dietary GHG emissions by diet group adjusted for sex and age. The age-and-sex-adjusted mean (95 % confidence interval) GHG emissions in kilograms of carbon dioxide equivalents per day (kgCO2e/day) were 7.19 (7.16, 7.22) for high meat-eaters ( > = 100 g/d), 5.63 (5.61, 5.65) for medium meat-eaters (50-99 g/d), 4.67 (4.65, 4.70) for low meat-eaters ( < 50 g/d), 3.91 (3.88, 3.94) for fish-eaters, 3.81 (3.79, 3.83) for vegetarians and 2.89 (2.83, 2.94) for vegans. In conclusion, dietary GHG emissions in self-selected meat-eaters are approximately twice as high as those in vegans. It is likely that reductions in meat consumption would lead to reductions in dietary GHG emissions.

    Source 3

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      your third claim is going to take some reading for me, but I would bet dollars to donuts that I’m going to find out that they’re counting greenhouse gas emissions from the feed that is given to animals, which makes sense if you don’t think about it too long. but most of what we need to feed to animals is actually agricultural waste product, so by feeding it to animals, we are conserving, not producing.

    • commie@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      2 months ago

      your first claim is actually just fluff. The actual research paper does not make that same claim.

      your second claim is literally expired. The academy of nutrition and dietetics does not currently have a position about vegetarian or vegan diets.

    • GBU_28@lemm.ee
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      2 months ago

      Obviously the biggest way to reduce impact is to not exist, and certainly not reproduce.

      Mind, I’m not pointing that phrase at you, I’m speaking about any human.

    • corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca
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      2 months ago

      I like how when someone basically says “Don’t be the vegan at the party”, you double down with the thing that most pushes buttons.

      It’s good at removing doubt.