Firstly, what is a sustainable diet? It’s generally accepted that they are diets that ‘promote all dimensions of individuals’ health and wellbeing [and] have low environmental pressure and impact’. Put simply, a sustainable diet is one that makes you healthy and doesn’t destroy the environment.
A vegan diet has the lowest carbon footprint of any diet, while animal farming uses up far more resources and causes a lot more pollution than growing crops. However, there are big differences between one plant food and another. Opposite, you’ll find the most sustainable vegan foods – they all have a low carbon footprint and their cultivation is sustainable in terms of low water use and pesticide and fertiliser requirements. In fact, there are even more sustainable foods in the world, but here I’m concentrating on foods that are common and easily available.