Diet changes may cut emissions without raising costs

Modest dietary changes, particularly limiting red meat intake, would help meet climate goals and benefit health across Scotland, research shows.

Scientists modelling potential diets found that most approaches to reducing daily meat and dairy intake and replacing with alternatives would lead to benefits for nutrition, health and the environment, without increasing consumer costs.

The study assessed 33 ways of meeting the UK Climate Change Committee’s recommendations for sustainable diets, examining impacts on health conditions such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease as well as nutrient intake, greenhouse gas emissions, land and water use and cost of diets.

Across all modelled scenarios, reductions in meat and dairy were linked to improvements in health outcomes and environmental indicators, according to the Division of Global Agriculture and Food Systems research team.

Small swaps

Small, gram-for-gram substitutions, such as partially replacing processed meat in common meals such as pasta dishes or sandwiches, were enough to produce meaningful long-term benefits.

Replacing some meat with a range of alternatives, such as vegetables, beans and eggs, did not adversely affect nutrient intake.

Although reductions in dairy intake could adversely affect iodine intake in some demographic groups, this could be avoided by iodine fortification of plant-based dairy alternatives.

Findings show that these changes did not significantly increase the overall cost of diets, challenging the perception that more sustainable eating is more expensive.

Climate target

The findings suggest that focusing efforts on people who consume large portions of red and processed meat could deliver the greatest gains, helping to meet target reductions of 20 per cent less meat consumption by 2030 and further cuts by 2050 recommended by the UK Climate Change Committee.

Rather than reducing intake evenly across the population, shifting consumers with high intakes of red and processed meat to lower intakes was predicted to prevent almost 60,000 diabetes cases over ten years and achieve larger environmental benefits, the research team explains. 

This targeted approach could be an effective way to meet climate and health goals, researchers say. 

Environmental gains

All modelled pathways resulted in reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, as well as lower land and water use.

The research also highlights that the total emissions linked to food consumption among Scottish adults, accounting also for the carbon footprint associated with food imports, exceed those from agricultural production in Scotland, underlining the importance of dietary change alongside reductions in emissions from Scottish agriculture.

This study was carried out in collaboration with colleagues from the University of Oxford and Food Standards Scotland, funded by the Wellcome Trust and Food Standards Scotland. The research was published in Nature Food.

Related links

Research publication - Nature Food