by Poppy Tombs, University College London

Credit: Pixabay/CC0 Public Domain

Beans and peas rank as the best meat and milk replacement from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives, finds a new study by researchers at UCL and the University of Oxford.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that legumes (such as soybeans, peas, and beans) outperformed processed products such as veggie burgers and plant milks.

Lab-grown meat was found to be the worst replacement due to a lack of health benefits and high costs—even after accounting for potential cost reductions and investment.

The findings provide support for public policies and business initiatives aimed at increasing the intake of minimally processed meat and milk replacements.

The study, led by Dr. Marco Springmann (UCL Institute for Global Health and University of Oxford), combined nutrition, health, environmental and cost assessments to compare the impacts of meat and milk with replacement products.

Researchers assessed traditional products such as tofu and tempeh, processed alternatives such as veggie burgers and plant milks, prospective products such as lab-grown beef, as well as unprocessed foods such as soybeans and peas.

The findings show that unprocessed plant-based foods such as soybeans, peas, and beans are best suited for replacing meat and dairy. Choosing legumes over meat and milk would reduce nutritional imbalances in high-income countries like the U.K., U.S., and Europe by half and mortality from diet-related diseases by a tenth.

Per-serving comparison of meat and milk alternatives across nutritional (A), health (B), environmental (C), and cost (D) aspects. Credit: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2319010121

Meanwhile, the environmental impacts of diets such as greenhouse gas emissions, land use, and water use would decrease by more than half, and costs by more than a third.

Dr. Springmann said, "Reducing meat and dairy in high-income countries is essential for limiting climate change, biodiversity loss, and improving health. Our study shows that a range of foods and food products exist that would have multiple benefits when replacing meat and dairy in current diets."

Despite not being the front runner, processed plant-based foods such as veggie burgers and plant milks still resulted in substantial benefits when replacing meat and dairy. However, the emissions reductions and health improvements were a fifth to a third less than when choosing unprocessed legumes, and costs to the consumer were a tenth higher than those of current diets.

Dr. Springmann noted, "Unprocessed legumes such as peas and beans were the clear winner in our assessment. They performed well from all perspectives, including nutritional, health, environmental, and cost. But a surprising runner-up was tempeh, a traditional Indonesian food made from fermented soybeans, which retains much of the nutritional properties of soybeans without much processing or additives. This and the relatively low cost gave it an edge over more processed alternatives such as veggie burgers."

Another surprising finding was for lab-grown meat. Despite high uncertainties, the existing data suggest it is not a competitive product—even for normal meat. At current technologies, its emissions can be as high as those of beef burgers at up to 40,000 times its costs, while its health impacts when replicating beef would be similarly bad.

Although costs and emissions could come down with more efficient production processes, this would require both substantial investments and technological advances.

Dr. Springmann added, "Public investments in both lab-grown meat and ultra-processed burger patties look like tough sells when considering their relative impacts and available alternatives. Our findings suggest that suitable alternatives to meat and milk exist and are available and affordable without necessarily requiring new technologies or product development. What is required, however, are prudent public policies that support all citizens in eating healthy and sustainable meals."

More information: Marco Springmann, A multicriteria analysis of meat and milk alternatives from nutritional, health, environmental, and cost perspectives, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (2024). DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2319010121

Journal information: Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 

Provided by University College London