Twelve Benefits of a Plant-based Diet

The numerous benefits have been mentioned in this blog before. In particular it addresses the environmental and water issues that prompted this blog post. The New Normal need not be normal

Here are 12 benefits, covering the environment, health, and animal welfare. Any one of them on its own makes a good case for following a plant-based diet.

1. Environment
Avoiding meat and dairy products is the single biggest way to reduce your environmental impact on the planet
Joseph Poore, University of Oxford

Nothing really compares to beef, lamb, pork, and dairy – these products are in a league of their own in the level of damage they typically do to the environment, on almost every environmental issue we track

2.Water
Water usage is reduced. It takes 3 to 5 times more water to feed a meat eater compared with that used to feed a vegan [2a]

Clearly our lifestyle affects not only our own fresh water supply but by taking water from other parts of the world embedded in our imports we reduce the availability of water for people in some of the most vulnerable areas in the world [2b]

Water usage is one of the planetary boundaries that must not be crossed without dangerous consequences. A plant-based diet is a tool to help prevent this. [2c]

3. CO2 Green House Gas emissions. Reduced.
The Greenhouse gas emissions from a beef herd are 40 times higher than those from the production of the equivalent amount of protein in beans and pulses.
There is no Planet B, Mike Berners-Lee, 2021

4. Methane Green House Gas emissions. Reduced.
Curbing methane is the most important thing we can do for the near term. So moving away from diets high in lamb, beef and dairy can have a significant effect on reducing methane levels and global warming. Methane Matters

5. Ocean and sea life harm, Reduced
A plant-based diet, if widely adopted, is an effective weapon against the myriad assaults on the oceans of rising temperatures, pollution, overfishing, seafloor dredging and acidification

6. Rivers
Plant-based diets lead to healthier rivers.
Runoff from animal and poultry effluent spread on farmland is killing rivers. By reducing demand, a plant-based diet will help to eliminate this source of damaging nutrient runoff into rivers. [6a]
Dairy and chicken farm effluent is suffocating Britain’s rivers, George Monbiot, July 2021 [6b]

7. Wildlife – biodiversity
A plant-based diet reduces the land required to grow food, leaving more space for rewilding

8. Health – Antibiotics
Not only is meat an extremely inefficient way of producing food, but it is most likely to be the cause of the next pandemic. The connection occurs because an estimated two thirds of all antibiotics are given to animals mainly to stimulate growth for food production, not to cure disease. As a result bacteria have more opportunities to become resistant to antibiotics, rendering the antibiotics useless.

9. Health – Preventing Disease
Covid-19 is thought to have originated in a wet market in China.
Wuhan market was epicentre of pandemic’s start, studies suggest.
Nature, Feb 2022 [9a]
Meat markets increase the risk of another pandemic. A plant-based diet eliminates this type of risk.

In many parts of the world, forests are encroached and cleared, often to make way for livestock farming, particularly beef [9b] As a result humans are coming into contact with infected animals that they would otherwise have rarely encountered, increasing the risk of infection by new diseases.

10. Mental health
Choosing a meat diet harms the mental health of the workers who produce it. This doesn’t mean they are bad people. Good people can do bad things (we are all examples of that). But the meat processing environment damages people. In research published in 2021, it was found that Slaughter House Workers have a higher prevalence rate of mental health issues, in particular depression and anxiety, in addition to violence-supportive attitudes and and antisocial behavior. [10a]
The Psychological Impact of Slaughterhouse Employment: A Systematic Literature Review [10b]

Unsurprisingly, studies have found that slaughterhouse work is connected to higher incidents of domestic violence, alcohol and drug abuse

11. Healthy Living
The NHS advises that you can get the nutrients you need from eating a varied and balanced vegan diet which includes fortified foods and supplements. [11a]

Some vegans report that with a well planned vegan diet they don’t need to consume supplements. Take medical advice on supplements if you are unsure – advice no different to meat eaters!

Not specifically recommending a vegan diet, but Tim Spector recommends try to eat 30 different plants each week [11b]

12. Respect for all life
Vegans are not merely arguing for better animal welfare, but for animal life itself. Outside of farms even the least regarded livestock can live longer and enjoy rich social lives. [12a]

The UK Animal Sentience bill, passed earlier this year, recognised that animals have feelings and emotions. [12b]

Why should we take that from them?

Positive Change

Following a plant-based or vegan diet is not primarily about giving something up or restricting our rights
It is about treading lightly on the planet and enabling its life to flourish.

This is not legalism or rules to bind
It is liberating

Not a hair shirt to punish the former meat eater
It is opening up new choices

This is not naming and shaming
This is encouraging a better way

[1] https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2018/may/31/avoiding-meat-and-dairy-is-single-biggest-way-to-reduce-your-impact-on-earth

[2a] https://www.livekindly.co/vegan-diet-less-water-than-meat/amp/

[2b] https://veganwaynotes.blogspot.com/2021/07/fresh-water.html

[2c] https://veganwaynotes.blogspot.com/2021/07/planetary-boundaries-overview.html

[3] https://www.hive.co.uk/Product/Mike-Lancaster-University-Berners-Lee/There-Is-No-Planet-B–A-Handbook-for-the-Make-or-Break-Ye/25322017

[4] VeganPieces Methane Matters

[5] VeganPieces Ocean Acidification

[6a] VeganPieces Cost of Cheap Chicken

[6b] https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jul/21/britains-rivers-suffocating-industrial-farm-waste, George Monbiot, July 2021