For yourself… and the environment.

By: Heidi Wagenbach

With many people embracing veganism and this diet gaining more traction in the 21st century than ever before, there must be something special about this diet… right? It’s time to find out.

I went through that phase of trying different plant-based items and soy/almond milk. While that lasted for about a month or two, I never went back to eating the same again. I now limit the amount of dairy I consume, having a glass of milk in the morning and indulging cheese, but avoiding yogurt and cottage cheese. I don’t really eat red meat, but find that I still enjoy chicken and turkey on occasion. I’d like to think of myself as semi-vegetarian, and that I could embrace the diet fully one of these days, but never, ever vegan. I like ice cream too much to sacrifice it from my life. But let’s explore the health benefits of a vegan diet, its impact on the world in general, and if transitioning into avoiding animal products is really as good as experts claim.

Background

Veganism is excluding all animal products (such as meat, dairy, and eggs) from your diet. The number of people opting for this change has increased over the years, due to health issues, animal welfare, and environmental concerns. This way of eating is rich in nutrients (if done properly), low in saturated fats, and can improve overall health, limiting heart disease, fighting to prevent cancer and diabetes. However, if you’re considering changing your diet, you should know how to obtain certain nutrients, like iron, calcium, and vitamin B-12, and consult with your doctor beforehand to make sure you won’t go through deficiencies. Some people choose to be vegan, while others need to follow it due to dietary restrictions/allergies. Be sure to include a variety of fruits, veggies, beans, nuts, and seeds to ensure minerals, healthy fats, and protein. A vegan diet is much more restrictive than vegetarian.

How Veganism Helps You

Heart health

• A lower intake of animal products means a lower intake of fat, which can reduce heart disease. 
• Meat, cheese, and butter contain saturated fats, therefore higher cholesterol levels. Plants and grains, on the other hand, are high in fiber, reducing the absorption of cholesterol into your bloodstream.
• You will take in fewer calories, meaning a lower BMI and weight loss, thus a reduced risk of obesity.
• Vegan diets are more effective than other diets because they provide macronutrients. People who follow this eating plan will manage their weight better by replacing meat with plants. Obviously, eating a lot of processed/high fat plant-based foods contradicts the purpose.

Cancer

• A vegan diet lowers your risk of cancer by 15% according to a 2017 review. 
• Red/processed meat (consumed in large amounts) can possibly lead to prostate/pancreatic cancer.

How Veganism Helps The Planet

Combats hunger in many countries

A lot of food grown around the world isn’t being eaten by humans; 70% of the grain grown in the United States feeds livestock. It’s estimated that 700 million tons of food per year that could be consumed by people goes to animals instead. Deforestation, overfishing, and pollution caused by meat and/or fish industries limits the overall ability of Earth’s production. The global population is expected to go over 9 billion by 2050, and with the path we’re going down now, there’s no way that many people could survive with the limited resources Earth has.

Conserves water

Millions of people don’t have access to clean water, caused by droughts and/or mismanagement of resources, alongside the fact that livestock drink and pollute fresh water. It takes about 100 to 200 times more water to raise a pound of beef than it does to raise a pound of plant foods. Livestock also erode/weaken soil and seeing they’re living creatures that need to roam, trees are cut down to provide them with more land. The lack of forests will accelerate climate change, whereas plants provide nourishment to clean the air. Not-so-fun fact: livestock cause more carbon emissions than cars, buses, planes, and ships combined.

Reduces energy consumption

Meat costs a lot of energy. It takes time to raise animals, and the process of shipping the products from the slaughterhouse to your dinner table is extensive and expensive. Both electricity and gas are expended in this delivery process, thus Earth takes another toll.

How Veganism Hinders The Planet

Joseph Poore, a researcher at the University of Oxford, who studies the environmental impact of food stated: 

Nothing really compares to beef, lamb, pork, and dairy– these products are in a league of their own in the level of damage they typically do to the environment, on almost every environmental issue we track… But it’s essential to be mindful about everything we consume: air-transported fruit and veg can create more greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram than poultry meat, for example.

Angelina Frankowska studies sustainability at the University of Manchester and she found that the asparagus eaten in the UK has the highest carbon footprint out of the various 56 fruits/vegetables they studied, seeing that it’s imported from Peru. Our diets can lead to unexpected consequences. Just take a look at the following… 

Avocado… Or Avaca-don’t

Avocados (or “alligator pears”) are delicious, and easily one of my favorite foods, however they require huge amounts of water. A single mature tree needs 46 gallons of water every day. There are many areas suffering from water shortages (i.e. California, where a lot of avos are grown, with their constant heat waves, droughts, and fires). Other fruits, say mangoes for example, need over a hundred of gallons of water per kilogram. Similarly, plums need 67 gallons.

There Isn’t Mushroom For Jokes Here

The US Department of Agriculture showed that producing a kilogram of button, chestnut, or portobello mushrooms casts 2.13kg of carbon dioxide into the air. In order to grow mushrooms, the temperature in the controlled space must go up to at least 62 degrees celsius (or about 140 degrees fahrenheit). During this, CO2 is exchanged with fresh air. While this is still less than beef, and even the “greenest” chicken (which produces about 5 CO2/kg)… it’s still not great.

Cuckoo For Cocoa– Beans

Between 4.9 and 7.4 million acres of tropical rainforests were lost to plantations over 1988 and 2008. Even though harvesting palm oil and soy is far more damaging, 1kg of chocolate produces 11.2kg of CO2. Poore showed in his own studies that a small 50g bar of dark chocolate can create up to 7kg of CO2, or in other words: driving 17 miles in a car.

This Is Nuts!

A bag of almonds from Costco used to be an essential on my grocery list, but that was before they got so expensive. Now I can see why… nut trees consume over 900 gallons of fresh water for every kilogram of nuts. Cashews release the most carbon (almost 5 CO2/kg), and they must undergo yet another process to remove the caustic oil that can burn the skin of people handling them.

How Prices Compare

Doing some quick online browsing of my preferred grocery store, Fry’s, I found a prime example of why veganism is difficult to embrace financially when you are perhaps a single mom, a college student, or a part-time employee who wants to save instead of spend wherever possible.

• Silk Chocolate Protein Almond & Cashew Milk (64 oz) – $3.29
• Kroger Lactose Free 2% Reduced Fat Milk (½ gallon) – $2.99
• Fry’s 2% Reduced Fat Milk (½ gallon) – $1.59
• Silk Vanilla Almond Milk (½ gallon) – $2.99
• Better Than Milk Organic Unsweetened Oat Drink (~34 oz) – $5.99
• Blue Diamond Vanilla Unsweetened Coconut Milk (32 oz) – $2.19

In short: “Why should I pay more money for almond, coconut, and oat milk when I get less or the same amount compared to regular milk?”

In The End…

You may feel good about your health and bettering the planet by switching to veganism but personally, I wouldn’t convert to this eating lifestyle simply because I already like to think I limit what I eat and know it’s not going to make a ton of difference. Unless the entirety of the US (for example) switches to veganism, there won’t be a real, observable change. Basically, every diet is faulted one way or another, and as long as you are making smart eating choices that include all different food groups, then it’s a win.

Sources:

What to know about vegan diets

9 reasons why veganism can save the world

Why the vegan diet is not always green

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