Impacts of Vegetarian Diet on Healthy Eating Patterns and Environmental Sustainability

Abstract

Human eating habits have changed over time and currently the majority of foods eaten by people affect their physical health and that of the environment. The objectives of our research are to highlight the importance of a plant-based diet in promoting human health as well as the socio-environmental harm of this type of diet, identify the main barriers encountered in obtaining a healthy diet, contribute to raising awareness of the socio-environmental impacts caused by the creation and consumption of animals and their consequences and raise aspects of public policy to encourage healthy eating. The present study is a narrative review, carried out by searching for scientific publications from 2006 to 2022, in the electronic databases National Center for biotechnology Information (PubMed), Scientific Electronic Library Online (SciELO) and ScienceDirect. The mapped data highlights the severity of the socio-environmental impacts caused by the creation and consumption of animals that have a decisive influence on global warming, air, soil, marine systems and freshwater pollution; in the loss of habitats and extinction of species and the overexploitation of natural resources, land and oceans.