study has found.
Specialists evaluated various factors in examining 24 meat and milk substitutes, such as their effects on health, environmental influence and their expense.
They discovered that natural plant-based foods such as peas, soybeans and beans excelled across all the categories.
In comparison, processed foods like veggie burgers, meat alternatives such as tofu and tempeh, and plant-based milks were linked to fewer climate advantages and higher costs than unprocessed foods – even though they were still superior to animal products.
At the bottom of the list was lab-grown meat, which is not yet available for human consumption in the UK.
It is proposed that replacing all meat or dairy, with the equivalent calories from meat or milk substitutes, in high-income countries, could potentially reduce early deaths by a range of 5 to 6 percent.
Among meat substitutes, the largest decreases were for pulses (6.1 per cent), followed by tempeh, beans and soybeans (5.1 per cent to 5.7 per cent), veggie burgers and tofu (4 per cent to 4.3 per cent), and veggie sausages and veggie bacon (3.5 per cent to 3.6 per cent), they said.
Among milk alternatives, the largest reductions for 2024 were for soybeans (5.2 percent), followed by almond milk.
Most of the shifts in mortality chances were associated with increases in fiber (44 percent), which has a positive health impact, followed by decreases in areas such as bad cholesterol as well as increases in healthy fats and the mineral potassium.
Researchers claim that if all calorie intake from meat and dairy was substituted with alternatives, individuals generally adopted a lower-fat diet with higher fiber intake.
The experts stated that the livestock segment accounts for more than half of food-related emissions contributing to greenhouse gases and roughly 20 percent of all greenhouse gas emissions.
"Unless we shift towards more plant-based diets, the environmental consequences of our food system may cause significant difficulties for efforts to limit global warming to below 2 degrees Celsius and may even outpace other key planetary boundaries that define a safe operating space for humanity within a stable Earth system," they stated.
They noted: "Our study's results indicate that non-processed plant-based foods such as soybeans, peas, and beans are best positioned to replace meat and dairy products in high-income areas, and performed well across all evaluated metrics.
In comparison, processed plant-based foods such as veggie burgers and plant milks were associated with fewer climate benefits and higher costs than unprocessed foods, but still offered considerable environmental, health, and nutritional benefits compared to animal-source foods.
The team found that selecting legumes over meat and milk would decrease "nutritional imbalances" in high-income countries such as the UK by half, premature death - primarily from diet-related diseases - by a tenth, the environmental impact of diets by more than half, and expenses by over a third.
Dr Marco Springmann of the Environmental Change Institute at Oxford, who led the study, stated: "Reducing meat and dairy consumption in high-income countries is crucial for curbing climate change, conserving biodiversity, and enhancing public health."
Our research reveals that there are a variety of foods that would offer numerous advantages when substituting meat and dairy in today's diets.
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