#Soundplant alternative full#

“Meat alternative products” also known as “meat analogs” are food products that mimic the taste, texture, and appearance of meat such as plant-based meat crumbles, bacon, burgers, hot dogs, etc. Northwestern Memorial Hospital's red dahl, a plant-based mealĪnd winner of the Health Care Culinary Contest (Northwestern Memorial Hospital).

However, interest in meat alternative products is gaining momentum faster than whole plant-based proteins. Health professionals and hospitals can take advantage of this trend to advance public and environmental health and influence consumer choices by educating and guiding individuals toward the most affordable, transparent, and scientifically-sound plant-based diet emphasizing whole foods from local and sustainable producers. consumers are vegan and 7 percent are vegetarian, a growing number are considered “flexitarian,” choosing to consume meat at a reduced rate. One in four consumers are eating less meat. Food-related water use was projected to rise by 15%.Health care should prioritize plant-forward diets A Health Care Without Harm position statementĪmericans on average eat three times more meat per capita than the rest of the world and health care bears the burden of the human health impacts of high meat consumption and the secondary degradation of air, water, and soil generated by the meat production system.ĭiets that embrace plant-based proteins are trending. Replacing meat with plant alternatives was estimated to save approximately 29 million hectares of cropland, 3 billion kg of nitrogen fertilizer, and 280 billion kg carbon dioxide per year in the US. Soy contributed the most protein to beef-replacing diets, but accounted for only 6% of the overall nitrogen fertilizer needed to produce beef.

#Soundplant alternative full#

Diets were modelled to exactly match the protein content of the meat they replaced - 13 g of protein per day from beef or 30g of protein per day from all three meat types - while also satisfying 43 other nutrient requirements, such as vitamins and fatty acids.īuckwheat and tofu jointly delivered a full third of the total protein of diets that replaced all meats, yet accounted for only 12% of the nitrogen fertilizer and water and less than 22% of the cropland needed to produce the meats they replaced. The authors’ goal was to model a range of plant replacement diets that were at least as nutritious, if not more beneficial, than the meats they replaced, while also assessing their environmental impact. Plant-based diets consisted predominantly of soy, green pepper, squash, buckwheat and asparagus.

Gidon Eshel and colleagues used a computer model to devise hundreds of plant-based diets to replace either beef alone or all three dominant US meat types: beef, poultry and pork.

These findings are reported in a modelling study in Scientific Reports, which suggests that use of nitrogen fertilizer and greenhouse gas emissions would also be reduced, while only food-related water use would rise. By replacing meat with protein-conserving plant alternatives Americans could satisfy key nutritional requirements, while eliminating pastureland use and reducing 35-50% of the cropland currently needed for food production.