The idea of going vegan has taken off a lot in the past couple of years. People are opting out of eating animal-based products like eggs, meat, dairy and more. A lot of contenders of vegan diets have wondered whether the diet is actually healthy for our bodies and the planet in general. Many of them questioned whether opting for a vegan diet makes a difference to the planet and helps in reducing carbon footprint. Now, a new study by Oxford has proven that the vegan diet is actually significantly better for the environment and the data shows it clearly.
A healthy and balanced diet can go a long way. Photo Credit: iStock
Also Read: Everything You Need To Know About Veganism Before Trying It
The study was conducted by Oxford scientists and published in the journal 'Nature Food'. They surveyed 55,000 participants based in the UK who were a part of the study for over 12 months. They reported what they ate and drank daily, based on which they were classified into six groups including vegan, vegetarian, fish-eaters, and meat-eaters of low to high frequency. This data was then linked with another data set containing the environmental impact of each food. Meat and dairy were found to have much more impact on the environment in terms of usage of land, fertiliser and greenhouse gas emissions. Thus, the study found that vegans have just 30% of the environmental impact when compared with high-meat eaters.
Another crucial finding of the study by Oxford was that simply eating less meat or going vegetarian can also help in reducing the environmental impact that we have. It is not absolutely necessary to go fully vegan, as even low-meat diets had only 70% of the impact across most measures in the study.