While epidemics of chronic disease are currently by far our leading causes of death, global warming is considered a looming public health threat. How can we eat to combat dietary diseases and greenhouse gas emissions at the same time?
Diet and Climate Change: Cooking Up a Storm
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One of the most prestigious medical journals in the world editorialized that climate change represents the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, and currently, chronic diseases are, by far, the leading cause of death. Might there be a way to combat both at the same time? For example, riding our bikes instead of driving is a win-win-win for people, planet, and pocketbook. Good for us, the environment, and cheaper too. Are there similar win-win situations when it comes to diet?
The same foods that create the most greenhouse gases appear to be the same foods that are contributing to many of our chronic diseases. Meat, fish, eggs, and dairy were found to have the greatest environmental impact, whereas grains, beans, fruits and vegetables had the least impact. And, not only did the foods with the heaviest environmental impact tend to have lower nutritional quality, but also a higher price per pound, thereby scoring that win-win-win scenario.
The European Commission, the governing body of the European Union, commissioned a study on what individuals can do to help the climate. In terms of transport, if Europeans started driving electric cars, it could prevent as much as 174 million tons of carbon from getting released. We could also turn down the thermostat a bit, maybe put on a sweater. But, the most powerful thing people can do is shift to a meat-free diet. What we eat may have more of an impact on global warming than what we drive. Even just cutting out animal protein intake one day of the week could have a powerful effect. Even just Meatless Mondays could beat out working from home all week and not commuting.
And, a strictly plant-based diet may be better still, responsible for only about half the greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, studies have suggested that moderate dietary changes are not enough to reduce impacts from food consumption drastically. Changes to healthier diets, without significant meat and dairy intake reductions, may result only in rather minor reductions of environmental impacts. This is because the average fossil energy input for animal protein production systems is like 25 calories of fossil energy input for every one calorie produced—more than 11 times greater than that for grain protein production, for example, which is down around two to one.
Researchers in Italy compared seven different diets to see which one was environmentally friendliest. They compared a conventional, omnivorous diet adhering to dietary guidelines, to an organic, omnivorous diet, conventional vegetarian, organic vegetarian, conventional vegan, and organic vegan to what the average person actually eats. For each dietary pattern, they looked at carcinogens, air pollution, climate change, effects on the ozone layer, the ecosystem, acid rain, and land, mineral, and fossil fuel use. This is what they came up with. This is how many resources it took to feed people on their current diets. These are the negative effects the diet is having on the ecosystem, and the adverse effects on human health. If they were eating a healthier diet, conforming to the dietary recommendations, the environmental impact would be significantly less. An organic omnivorous diet would be better, similar to a vegetarian diet of conventional foods, beaten out by an organic vegetarian diet, conventional vegan and organic vegan diet.
The Commission report described the barriers to animal product reduction as largely, lack of knowledge, ingrained habits and culinary cultures. Proposed policy measures include meat or animal protein taxes, educational campaigns, and putting the greenhouse gas emissions info right on food labels.
Climate change mitigation is expensive. A global transition to even just a low-meat diet, as recommended for health reasons, could reduce these mitigation costs. A healthier low-meat diet would cut the cost of mitigating climate change from about 1% of GDP by more than half; a no-meat diet could cut two-thirds of the cost, and a no-animal-product-diet could cut the cost 80%.
But many aren’t aware of the cow in the room. It seems that very few people are aware that the livestock sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. But that’s changing.
The UK’s National Health Service is taking a leading role in reducing carbon emissions. Patients, visitors, and staff can look forward to healthy low carbon menus with much less meat, dairy, and eggs, for evidence shows that as far as the climate it concerned, meat is heat.
The Swedish Government recently amended their dietary recommendations to encourage citizens to eat less meat. Even if we seek only to achieve the conservative objective of avoiding further long-term increases in greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, we are still led to rather radical recommendations such as cutting current consumption levels in half in affluent countries—an unlikely outcome if there were no direct rewards to citizens for doing so. Fortunately, there are such rewards: important health benefits. By helping the planet we can help ourselves.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- NA. Behavioural climate change mitigation options and their appropriate inclusion in quantitative longer-term policy scenarios. Deft, January 2012.
- L Baroni, L Cenci, M Tettamanti, M Berati. Evaluating the environmental impact of various dietary patterns combined with different food production systems. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Feb;61(2):279-86. Epub 2006 Oct 11.
- D Pimentel, M Pimentel. Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Sep;78(3 Suppl):660S-663S.
- E Stehfest, L Bouwman, D P V Vuuren, M G J D Elzen, B Eickhout, P Kabat. Climate benefits of changing diet. Climatic Change (2009) 95:83–102.
- T Meier, O Christen. Environmental impacts of dietary recommendations and dietary styles: Germany as an example. Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Jan 15;47(2):877-88. doi: 10.1021/es302152v. Epub 2012 Dec 17.
- A W Joyce, S Dixon, J Cmfort, J Hallett. The Cow in the Room: Public Knowledge of the Links Between Dietary Choices and Health and Environmental Impacts. Environ Health Insights. 2008; 1: 31–34.
- J Powles, Commentary: Why diets need to change to avert harm from global warming. Int J Epidemiol. 2009 Aug;38(4):1141-2.
- A G Capon, C E Rissel. Chronic disease and climate change: understanding co-benefits and their policy implications. N S W Public Health Bull. 2010 May-Jun;21(5-6):109-13.
- A Tukker, S Bausch-Goldbohm, M Verheijden, A de Koning, R Kleijn, O Wolf, I P Dominguez. Environmental Impacts of Diet Changes in the EU. Environmental Impacts of Diet Changes in the EU.
- NA. Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health. Lancet, Vol 373 May 16, 2009.
- NA. The National Food Administration environmentally effective food choices. Enviromentally effective food choices.
- S Friel, A D Dangour, T Garnett, K Lock, Z Chalabi, I Roberts, A Butler, C D Butler, J Waage, A J McMichael, A Haines. Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: food and agriculture. Lancet. 2009 Dec 12;374(9706):2016-25.
- G Masset, L G Soler, F Vieux, N Darmon. Identifying sustainable foods: the relationship between environmental impact, nutritional quality, and prices of foods representative of the French diet. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Jun;114(6):862-9.
- NA. Cooking up a storm. Food Climate Research Network. Sept 2008.
- Roberts I, The NHS carbon reduction strategy. BMJ 2009;338:b326
Images thanks to Christmas via Flickr.
One of the most prestigious medical journals in the world editorialized that climate change represents the biggest global health threat of the 21st century, and currently, chronic diseases are, by far, the leading cause of death. Might there be a way to combat both at the same time? For example, riding our bikes instead of driving is a win-win-win for people, planet, and pocketbook. Good for us, the environment, and cheaper too. Are there similar win-win situations when it comes to diet?
The same foods that create the most greenhouse gases appear to be the same foods that are contributing to many of our chronic diseases. Meat, fish, eggs, and dairy were found to have the greatest environmental impact, whereas grains, beans, fruits and vegetables had the least impact. And, not only did the foods with the heaviest environmental impact tend to have lower nutritional quality, but also a higher price per pound, thereby scoring that win-win-win scenario.
The European Commission, the governing body of the European Union, commissioned a study on what individuals can do to help the climate. In terms of transport, if Europeans started driving electric cars, it could prevent as much as 174 million tons of carbon from getting released. We could also turn down the thermostat a bit, maybe put on a sweater. But, the most powerful thing people can do is shift to a meat-free diet. What we eat may have more of an impact on global warming than what we drive. Even just cutting out animal protein intake one day of the week could have a powerful effect. Even just Meatless Mondays could beat out working from home all week and not commuting.
And, a strictly plant-based diet may be better still, responsible for only about half the greenhouse gas emissions. Overall, studies have suggested that moderate dietary changes are not enough to reduce impacts from food consumption drastically. Changes to healthier diets, without significant meat and dairy intake reductions, may result only in rather minor reductions of environmental impacts. This is because the average fossil energy input for animal protein production systems is like 25 calories of fossil energy input for every one calorie produced—more than 11 times greater than that for grain protein production, for example, which is down around two to one.
Researchers in Italy compared seven different diets to see which one was environmentally friendliest. They compared a conventional, omnivorous diet adhering to dietary guidelines, to an organic, omnivorous diet, conventional vegetarian, organic vegetarian, conventional vegan, and organic vegan to what the average person actually eats. For each dietary pattern, they looked at carcinogens, air pollution, climate change, effects on the ozone layer, the ecosystem, acid rain, and land, mineral, and fossil fuel use. This is what they came up with. This is how many resources it took to feed people on their current diets. These are the negative effects the diet is having on the ecosystem, and the adverse effects on human health. If they were eating a healthier diet, conforming to the dietary recommendations, the environmental impact would be significantly less. An organic omnivorous diet would be better, similar to a vegetarian diet of conventional foods, beaten out by an organic vegetarian diet, conventional vegan and organic vegan diet.
The Commission report described the barriers to animal product reduction as largely, lack of knowledge, ingrained habits and culinary cultures. Proposed policy measures include meat or animal protein taxes, educational campaigns, and putting the greenhouse gas emissions info right on food labels.
Climate change mitigation is expensive. A global transition to even just a low-meat diet, as recommended for health reasons, could reduce these mitigation costs. A healthier low-meat diet would cut the cost of mitigating climate change from about 1% of GDP by more than half; a no-meat diet could cut two-thirds of the cost, and a no-animal-product-diet could cut the cost 80%.
But many aren’t aware of the cow in the room. It seems that very few people are aware that the livestock sector is one of the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions. But that’s changing.
The UK’s National Health Service is taking a leading role in reducing carbon emissions. Patients, visitors, and staff can look forward to healthy low carbon menus with much less meat, dairy, and eggs, for evidence shows that as far as the climate it concerned, meat is heat.
The Swedish Government recently amended their dietary recommendations to encourage citizens to eat less meat. Even if we seek only to achieve the conservative objective of avoiding further long-term increases in greenhouse gas emissions from livestock, we are still led to rather radical recommendations such as cutting current consumption levels in half in affluent countries—an unlikely outcome if there were no direct rewards to citizens for doing so. Fortunately, there are such rewards: important health benefits. By helping the planet we can help ourselves.
To see any graphs, charts, graphics, images, and quotes to which Dr. Greger may be referring, watch the above video. This is just an approximation of the audio contributed by Katie Schloer.
Please consider volunteering to help out on the site.
- NA. Behavioural climate change mitigation options and their appropriate inclusion in quantitative longer-term policy scenarios. Deft, January 2012.
- L Baroni, L Cenci, M Tettamanti, M Berati. Evaluating the environmental impact of various dietary patterns combined with different food production systems. Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007 Feb;61(2):279-86. Epub 2006 Oct 11.
- D Pimentel, M Pimentel. Sustainability of meat-based and plant-based diets and the environment. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Sep;78(3 Suppl):660S-663S.
- E Stehfest, L Bouwman, D P V Vuuren, M G J D Elzen, B Eickhout, P Kabat. Climate benefits of changing diet. Climatic Change (2009) 95:83–102.
- T Meier, O Christen. Environmental impacts of dietary recommendations and dietary styles: Germany as an example. Environ Sci Technol. 2013 Jan 15;47(2):877-88. doi: 10.1021/es302152v. Epub 2012 Dec 17.
- A W Joyce, S Dixon, J Cmfort, J Hallett. The Cow in the Room: Public Knowledge of the Links Between Dietary Choices and Health and Environmental Impacts. Environ Health Insights. 2008; 1: 31–34.
- J Powles, Commentary: Why diets need to change to avert harm from global warming. Int J Epidemiol. 2009 Aug;38(4):1141-2.
- A G Capon, C E Rissel. Chronic disease and climate change: understanding co-benefits and their policy implications. N S W Public Health Bull. 2010 May-Jun;21(5-6):109-13.
- A Tukker, S Bausch-Goldbohm, M Verheijden, A de Koning, R Kleijn, O Wolf, I P Dominguez. Environmental Impacts of Diet Changes in the EU. Environmental Impacts of Diet Changes in the EU.
- NA. Health and climate change: policy responses to protect public health. Lancet, Vol 373 May 16, 2009.
- NA. The National Food Administration environmentally effective food choices. Enviromentally effective food choices.
- S Friel, A D Dangour, T Garnett, K Lock, Z Chalabi, I Roberts, A Butler, C D Butler, J Waage, A J McMichael, A Haines. Public health benefits of strategies to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions: food and agriculture. Lancet. 2009 Dec 12;374(9706):2016-25.
- G Masset, L G Soler, F Vieux, N Darmon. Identifying sustainable foods: the relationship between environmental impact, nutritional quality, and prices of foods representative of the French diet. J Acad Nutr Diet. 2014 Jun;114(6):862-9.
- NA. Cooking up a storm. Food Climate Research Network. Sept 2008.
- Roberts I, The NHS carbon reduction strategy. BMJ 2009;338:b326
Images thanks to Christmas via Flickr.
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Title
Diet and Climate Change: Cooking Up a Storm
LicenseCreative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International (CC BY-NC 4.0)
Content URLDoctor's Note
There are tons of articles on diet and sustainability. Someone should start a SustainabilityFacts.org! It’s such an important topic that I figure I’ll review the new science maybe once every year or two. Let me know in the comments if you’d like more (or less!). When the USDA entered these waters, the meat industry appeared to freak out. And the Dietary Guidelines debate continues.
What about just cutting down on meat in terms of health impacts? See my video Do Flexitarians Live Longer?
What are the health and food safety consequences of buying organic? See my five-part video series:
- Are Organic Foods More Nutritious?
- Are Organic Foods Safer?
- How to Make Your Own Fruit and Vegetable Wash
- Are Organic Foods Healthier?
- Are the Benefits of Organic Food Underrated or Overrated?
What about GMOs? See:
- Are GMOs Safe? The Case of BT Corn
- Are GMOs Safe? The Case of Roundup Ready Soy
- Is Monsanto’s Roundup Pesticide Glyphosate Safe?
- GMO Soy and Breast Cancer
2021 Update – You may be interested in my recent video The Environmental Impacts of Plant-Based Meat Substitutes.
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