If you’re already anticipating feeling as stuffed as a faux turkey after Christmas and looking for the perfect healthy and planet-friendly start to the new year, then a switch to plant-based milk might be just the pick-me-up you need.
New research comparing the benefits of meat and milk substitutes to the animal products they replace, as well as to the unprocessed ingredients from which they are derived, suggests it’s a good time to be thinking about swapping out the white stuff for a more oaty, almondy or soya-based product.
With greener alternatives to animal products proliferating at a rate of knots – and set to become even more popular amid a drive to lower carbon emissions and improve health – the Oxford University study analysed the nutritional, health, cost and environmental impact of 24 meat and dairy substitutes. These ranged from plant-based milk and veggie burgers to tofu and tempeh – and even, for comparison’s sake, to lab-grown meat.
“Unprocessed legumes such as peas and beans were the clear winner in our assessment. They performed well from all perspectives,” said the report’s lead author, Marco Springmann, a senior researcher at Oxford’s Environmental Change Institute, with tempeh “a surprising runner-up”. A traditional Indonesian food, it was found to retain much of the nutritional properties of the fermented soybeans from which it is made.
Milk alternatives were found to have higher amounts of iron than whole cow’s milk, while when it came to zinc, unprocessed milk alternatives had higher levels and processed milk alternatives lower levels. For riboflavin, processed alternatives had higher levels – except for almond milk – and unprocessed lower levels than whole milk.
While milk alternatives and other processed plant-based products such as veggie burgers were found to be more expensive and less environmentally friendly than powerhouse pulses, the study said they “still offered substantial environmental, health, and nutritional benefits compared to animal products”.
It concluded that there were “multiple benefits” to swapping meat and dairy for the growing range of alternatives, including “reductions in nutritional imbalances, dietary risks and mortality, environmental resource use and pollution” – and unprocessed substitutes were also cheaper. The researchers added that their findings provided support for a range of public policies and initiatives aimed at encouraging people to eat more planet-friendly grub.