A Review of Environmental Life Cycle Assessments of Diets: Plant-Based Solutions Are Truly Sustainable, even in the Form of Fast Foods

Abstract

This paper’s purpose is to shed light on the current understanding of the environmental benefits of vegetarian and vegan diets, considering the inclusion of a significant share of processed foods, such as plant-based burgers. We review recent Environmental Life Cycle Assessments of the three main diet types, omnivore, vegetarian, and vegan, and then assesses the environmental impacts of adding two commercial brands of plant-based burgers to vegetarian and vegan diets. The recent literature confirms that compared to omnivore diets adhering to the same dietary guidelines, vegan diets reduce land-use impacts by 50–86%, water use by 22–70%, and greenhouse gas emissions by 21–70%, while vegetarian diets achieve reductions of 27–84% in land use, 15–69% in water use, and 24–56% in greenhouse emissions. The environmental benefits of vegan and vegetarian diets are not affected by the consumption of highly processed plant-based burgers. Consumers reduce land use, water use, and greenhouse gas emissions between 87% and 96% by choosing a Beyond or Impossible burger instead of a regular beef patty. These results are robust to the uncertainties associated with a variety of beef production systems; there is no indication that a situation or condition may make beef burgers more environmentally friendly than these two plant-based alternatives, or that the addition of plant-based meats to vegan and vegetarian diets may reduce their environmental benefits.

Study of the importance of protein needs for catch-up growth in Indonesian stunted children: a narrative review

“…Some examples of dietary sources of animal protein are eggs, meat, chicken, fish, and dairy. 36 Research results by Khusun et al show that 35.4% of protein sources consumed by Indonesian people come from animal protein sources. Specifically, 12% comes from meat and poultry, 12.8% from eggs and milk, and 9.8% from fish.…”

“…However, children who achieve catch-up growth at 2 years have higher cognition than those who persistently experienced stunting during childhood. 36 …”

“…As described in the previous point, namely early stunting detection, ages attained during stunting and recovery affect the extent of achieving catch-up growth. 54 , 36 Based on Crookston et al regarding recovery from stunting and its impact on cognitive function, factors related to growth catch-up are children’s age at the second assessment, mother’s height, and grandparents living at home. 52 Id et al reported that the timeliness of child immunization, maternal parity, and household socioeconomic status were also important factors related to stunting recovery time in the first 5 years of life.…”

“…However, children who achieve catch-up growth at 2 years have higher cognition than those who persistently experienced stunting during childhood. 36 An experience of milder stunting incidence at the beginning of measurement is directly proportional to the tendency of catching up with growth. 54 This indicates that although restoring cognitive function may not be achieved completely, early recovery in stunted children prevents further declines in cognitive scores than the persistently stunted individuals.…”

Comparison of Plate Waste between Vegetarian and Meat-Containing Meals in a Hospital Setting: Environmental and Nutritional Considerations

“…Reducing the consumption of animal-based foods is a possible measure to reduce environmental impacts while improving health outcomes, with the potential to reduce diet-related GHGE by between 33 and 51% in the United States [ 9 , 10 ]. A systematic review found that vegan diets could reduce GHGE by up to 70%, land use by up to 86%, and water use by up to 70% [ 11 ]. Another review found that along with improved health, shifting from current omnivorous dietary patterns to vegetarian or vegan diets increases environmental sustainability while also improving health [ 12 ].…”