Protecting our world, our ecology and our environment is not only done with new laws and behaviors, but also supported by our diet, according to many. It is widely argued that a vegan diet, that is, not consuming any animal-derived food, protects the environment.
A new study published by scientists from Oxford University supports this theory, especially advocated by activists. According to research, a vegan diet greatly reduces the negative effects on the environment.
How was the research done?
In the study, signed by Michael Clark and Keren Papier, scientists examined the diets of 57,000 people in the UK. Moreover, these data were obtained from a database that has been organized for more than 20 years.
Nutrition data detailed what these people ate and drank in their daily lives. Using this data, the scientists compared the effects of their diet on greenhouse gas emissions, land use, water pollution and biodiversity reduction.
The people whose data were taken were from 6 different diet groups: vegan, vegetarian, fish consuming, low, medium and high meat consuming. In order to compare the effects of nutrition data on the environment, data on the effects of 57 thousand different foods on the environment were used.
How much does a vegan diet reduce the impact on the environment?
The result revealed that even the least sustainable vegan diet is more environmentally friendly than the most sustainable meat-oriented diet. This effect has increased many times in the types of diets where animal-derived food is more concentrated.
It has been announced that per unit of food consumed, meat and dairy products have 3 to 100 times the environmental impact of plant-based foods. The difference between the effect of vegan and high meat consuming individuals was shared as follows:
Reducing meat consumption also greatly reduces the impact on the environment:
There was also a surprising result when those who consumed high meat were compared with those who consumed low meat. It has been determined that the environmental impact of low meat consumers is 70% of those who consume high meat.
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