{"id":18690,"date":"2022-01-28T09:00:26","date_gmt":"2022-01-28T14:00:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/?p=18690"},"modified":"2022-01-13T14:46:41","modified_gmt":"2022-01-13T19:46:41","slug":"healthy-sustainable-and-affordable-can-we-have-all-three","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/2022\/01\/28\/healthy-sustainable-and-affordable-can-we-have-all-three\/","title":{"rendered":"Healthy, Sustainable, and Affordable: Can We Have All Three?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"265\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1754922-265x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-18691\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1754922-265x300.jpg 265w, https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/1754922.jpg 750w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 265px) 100vw, 265px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Globally, the way we eat today has been linked to about a\nthird of greenhouse gas emissions and more than a quarter of deaths mainly due\nto diet-related chronic diseases. Changes in eating patterns to include fewer\nanimal products and more plants have been suggested as a way to reduce the\nenvironmental effects of our diets and to improve people\u2019s health. Some have\nraised concerns about the cost of these changes and that these changes are not\naffordable for everyone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>A group of researchers from the United Kingdom and the\nUnited States teamed up to estimate the cost, based on current food prices, of\ndifferent diets (vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, and semi-vegetarian) in 150\ncountries using foods typical of each country. They also assessed the cost of\ndiet-related illnesses and the cost of diet-related effects on climate change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When only food costs were assessed, globally, vegan and\nvegetarian diets planned to be high in whole grains cost less than any other\ndiet and cost less than the baseline (current) diet. Vegan diets planned to be\nhigh in fruits and vegetables had a similar cost to the current diet. In high-\nand middle-income countries vegan and vegetarian diets high in vegetables and\nfruits or high in whole grains cost less than the current diet. In low-income\ncountries, all of the more sustainable diets cost more than the baseline diet.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reducing food waste and having more favorable socioeconomic\ndevelopment over the next 30 years resulted in a projected lower cost of\nvegetarian and vegan diets compared to current diets even in low-income\ncountries. A concern is that low-income countries will adopt more western\ndiets, high in animal products as they move away from the limited number of\nstaple foods that are currently eaten. Choosing to adopt vegan or near-vegan\ndiets could result in cost savings for individuals. and for society in terms of\nlower environmental and health effects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>When the food-related costs of climate change and\nhealth-related costs of diets were factored in, the average cost of current\ndiets increased by 12% for environmental costs and by 4% of health-related\ncosts. The increase in costs due to environmental and health-related factors\nwere lowest for vegan diets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Overall, vegan and vegetarian diets that emphasized whole\ngrains and legumes were the most affordable for all, especially when\nenvironmental and health costs were considered. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Yes, we can have healthy, sustainable, and affordable diets\nglobally, if more of us choose vegan or near-vegan diets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Reference<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Springmann M, Spajic L, Clark MA, et al. The healthiness and\nsustainability of national and global food based dietary guidelines: modelling\nstudy. <em>BMJ<\/em>. 2020;370:m2322. doi:10.1136\/bmj.m2322<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Reed Mangels, PhD, RD Globally, the way we eat today has been linked to about a third of greenhouse gas emissions and more than a quarter of deaths mainly due to diet-related chronic diseases. Changes in eating patterns to include fewer animal products and more plants have been suggested as a way to reduce [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18690","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18690"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18692,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18690\/revisions\/18692"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18690"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18690"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vrg.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18690"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}