Due to a research paper published by Oxford University going vegan would save millions of lives per year by 2050. As a person’s decision on his or her diet habits has a great impact not only on his or her health but also on the entire environment, the Oxford University found out that going vegan would cut $1 trillion in costs linked to climate change and healthcare. A diet that is mainly based on meat accounts for the greatest health catastrophe not only currently but much more in the years to come. Read on to find out more about those stunning research results published by Oxford University.
“Millions of lives could be saved annually by the year 2050 if people adopt vegetarian diets, a new study has found.
Cutting down on meat consumption worldwide would also protect the planet by cutting emissions by two thirds, and avoid over $1trillion in costs linked to climate change and healthcare, according to research published in by Oxford University.
Dr Marco Springmann, lead author of the study conducted at the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food, highlighted that a person’s diet “greatly influences” their health and the global environment.
“Imbalanced diets, such as diets low in fruits and vegetables, and high in red and processed meat, are responsible for the greatest health burden globally and in most regions,” he said.
“At the same time the food system is also responsible for more than a quarter of all greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore a major driver of climate change.”
To make their findings published in the journal ‘Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences’, the team predicted how four different dietary scenarios would impact the planet and people’s health.
These involved the global population: continuing on the current trajectory; adopting diets including the minimum recommending levels of vegetables and fruit; limiting the intake of red meat, sugar and total calories; and adopting vegetarian and vegan diets which comply with health guidelines.
Researchers found that leading a vegan lifestyle would save 8.1million lives by 2050, while vegetarianism could save 7.3million. And simply following the minimum global dietary guidelines could save 5.1million deaths.
Cutting down red meat alone accounted for half of the avoided deaths, while the other half was down due to a reduction in obesity linked to a rise in fruit and vegetable intake and cut in calories eaten.
The study also highlighted the grave impact that food has on global warming.
Currently, greenhouse gas emissions linked to food make up half of the pollution that the planet can afford to maintain if global warming its to be kept below 2°C.
But 70 per cent of food-related emissions would be cut if people adopted a vegan diet, dropping to 63 per cent with a vegetarian diet. Meanwhile, following global dietary guidelines would be cut emissions by 29 per cent.”
Read the full article at independent.co.uk!
