THE MOVE TOWARDS VEGETARIAN AND VEGAN LIFESTYLES IS ON THE RISE – BUT HOW COULD IT AFFECT YOUR ATHLETIC PERFORMANCE? NUTRITIONIST ANITA BEAN INVESTIGATE

NUTRITION

Eating less meat is one of the fastest-growing lifestyle trends. Four in 10 of us have either cut out meat or have cut down, according to a YouGov survey commissioned by Eat Better. The number of vegans has risen by more than 350 per cent since 2006 and at least half a million people are now following a vegan diet.

Interestingly, this trend away from meat isn’t just about health – although there is compelling evidence that vegetarian diets are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease, certain cancers and increased longevity. For many people, it’s more about reducing their environmental footprint. Ditching meat can cut your carbon footprint by up to 50 per cent, which (if enough of us got on board) could go a long way towards solving the global problem of scarce environmental resources and global warming. A vegetarian or vegan diet requires far less energy, land, pesticides, fertiliser, fuel, feed and water than a meat-based diet, and does less environmental damage, which makes it unquestionably more sustainable.

There are now real fears that, if current trends in meat consumption continue, we will not be able to feed the world’s expanding population. Livestock agriculture is grossly inefficient and requires five to 10 times more land than arable agriculture. If we ate less meat, we could free up about 640 million hectares of land currently dedicated to growing animal feed. And that would go a long way to sustainably feeding everyone.

Livestock agriculture is responsible for 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions: as much as the entire transport sector. According to research from the World Resources Institute (WRI), a global switch to diets with less meat and to vegetarian or vegan diets would more than halve those emissions and significantly reduce agriculture’s pressure on the environment.