Keto vs. Vegan: What to Eat if You Want to Save the Planet and Your Health
Debates over the benefits and pitfalls of different diets have been around as long as, well, the diets themselves. Is the ketogenic diet a good way to lose weight, or a carb-free trip to bad health? Are vegetarians missing out on vital vitamins? What, exactly, is the omnivore’s dilemma? Can vegans eat sugar? And do paleo adherents actually know what our ancient ancestors ate?
A study published this week in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition can at least put one diet debate to rest: the climate impact of our choices. Our food system is responsible for a third of global emissions—animal agriculture alone makes up 14%—and our diets could have a significant impact on what those emissions look like in the future.
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Using data collected from the U.S Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey of nearly 17,000 American adults, researchers at Tulane University identified six popular American diets—vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, paleo, keto, and omnivore—and compared them on the basis of environmental impact and nutritional quality. The keto diet, which eschews carbs in favor of fats, was the most carbon-intensive, generating approximately 3 kg of carbon dioxide per every 1,000 calories consumed. The paleo diet, which avoids grains, dairy, and legumes, came in second at 2.6 kg of CO2, while the omnivore diet kicked in at 2.2 kg of CO2.
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Source: TIME: Science - Category: Science Authors: Aryn Baker Tags: Uncategorized climate change Climate Is Everything embargoed study Food & Agriculture health healthscienceclimate Source Type: news
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