Swapping beef for foods like beans, nuts, and peas can benefit people’s health, say experts—and it can help the planet’s health, too.
While eating too much red meat has been linked with many chronic diseases, including type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and cancer, eating protein-rich plants—which also contain fiber, healthy fats, and micronutrients—can lower disease rates and lengthen lives.
A January 17, 2019 Time magazine article highlighted six high-protein foods that could be a healthy substitute for beef, including cultured meat, insects, and algae.
The article also noted that raising cattle emits lots of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere. Recent research estimated that if people around the world switched from beef to plant-based proteins, not only would diet-related deaths decrease, but greenhouse-gas emissions would drop significantly.
Walter Willett, professor of epidemiology and nutrition at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, told Time, “We’re on a lose-lose path at the moment: we’re destroying human health, and we’re destroying the environment at the same time. There is a win-win path, by shifting to more plant-based protein sources and producing them in an environmentally sustainable way.”
Read the Time magazine article: 6 High-Protein Foods That Are Healthier Than Beef
Learn more
Save lives, save the planet (Harvard Chan School feature)
Plate and the planet (The Nutrition Source)
Protein (The Nutrition Source)