Choosing a diet isn’t just a matter of nutrition and nutritional choices, you also need to think about plants. In fact, there are diets that are truly harmful to our planet: here are the most polluting diets on Earth.
Did you know that one diet can be more polluting than another? Dieting is not only a question of food and nutrition, but also an ecological one. There are in fact several studies that have analyzed the ecological impact that certain foods can have on the entire environment. Thus the most polluting diet ever was identified. You may have chosen this type of diet without knowing the harm you are doing to the Earth, let’s see what it is.
Among the diets that are based on foods that consume less CO2 and the Green ones we certainly find vegetarian and vegan ones, which have no use of meat. The ones that most damage to the environment are in fact foods in which there is a large use of meat. Based on data from research published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that most polluting of all is the ketogenic diet. This involves the consumption of fats and proteins at the expense of carbohydrates. Generally, those who follow this diet introduce 3 kg of CO2 for every 1000 calories consumed.
The most polluting diets on Earth
Right away next we find the paleo diet which also includes the consumption of meat and vegetables, fruit and dried fruit, but eliminates processed foods and dairy products. Consumes 1000 heat 2.6 kg of CO2. In third place we find the diet that everyone for better or worse follows or the omnivorous one in which everything is eaten and produces 2.23 kg of CO2 per thousand calories. It is certainly less polluted pescatarian diet in which only fish is consumed as meat and reaches 1.6 kg of CO2. A positive figure compared to diets that provide for the elimination of other macros such as carbohydrates or fats.
The least polluting of all are obviously the vegetarian and vegan diet which are in fifth and sixth place. For the vegetarian, less than 1 kg of emissions are consumed per 1000 calories, while for the vegan it reaches 0.7. very low numbers that highlight two factors: eating vegetarian is good for the Earth, but also for the body. “If we all decided to adopt a plant-based diet, our ecological footprint would decrease and we would be healthier,” says the researcher who led the study. However, we can prefer plant foods to the detriment of meat without eliminating it completely.