by Reed Mangels, PhD, RD
A recently published research study comprehensively assessed plant alternatives to animal meat and cows milk in terms of their effects on the environment, nutrition, and human health. Plant products were compared to the animal products these alternatives were intended to replace.
Three veggie meats (veggie burgers, veggie sausages, and veggie bacon) as well as tofu and tempeh and soybeans, beans, and peas were compared to beef, pork, poultry, beef burgers, pork sausages, and pork bacon. Soymilk, oat milk, almond milk, rice milk, and their main ingredients (soybeans, oats, almonds, and rice) were compared to whole and low-fat cow’s milk.
Here are a few of the more interesting results:
- All meat and milk alternatives had lower environmental impacts per serving than the animal products the plant products were intended to replace.
- Compared to whole and low-fat cows milk, soymilk and oat milk had 28 to 29% of the environmental impact. The environmental impact includes greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water use. Soymilk and oat milk had 5 to 9% of the effect of cows milk on water use. Soybeans had 10% of cows milk’s impact on the environment; almonds and oats had 12 to 15% of the impact of cows milk on the environment.
- Compared to beef, soybeans and peas had 2% of the environmental impact, veggie sausages, veggie bacon, and beans had 3 to 4% of the impact, and tempeh, veggie burgers, and tofu had 5 to 6% of the impact.
- Replacing all of the calories from meat or dairy in a hypothetical diet with plant alternatives reduced nutritional imbalances, overall. For example, replacing meat or dairy resulted in a reduction in saturated fat and increases in fiber and potassium.
- From a health standpoint, all of the plant products were associated with reduced risk of chronic disease compared to the animal products they would replace. In high-income countries, replacing all meat or dairy with the same calories from plant alternatives was calculated to reduce mortality by up to 5 to 6%.
The study’s author concludes that “a range of food products exist that when replacing meat and dairy in current diets would have multiple benefits including reductions in nutritional imbalances, dietary risks and mortality, environmental resource use and pollution, and when choosing unprocessed foods over processed ones also diet costs.”
These results should inspire both personal and global policy changes to increase the use of plant foods.
Reference
Springmann M. A multicriteria analysis of meat and milk alternatives from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024;121(50):e2319010121.
To read more about studies of plant foods and the environment see the Environment section on our website.