Did you know that transitioning to a plant-based diet is not only good for the environment, but it is also great for your health? At the moment, red meat intake in Europe and Latin America is more than 400% higher than daily recommended levels, while in North America it is more than 600% higher than daily recommended levels (Willett et al., 2013). 

Consuming too much red and processed meat is associated with an increased risk of both coronary heart disease and type 2 diabetes (Boada et al., 2016). Furthermore, there is strong evidence that red and processed meat is associated with numerous types of cancer including colon cancer, rectal cancer, and lung cancer (Farvid et al., 2021). Excess protein intake can also contribute to various health problems including kidney and liver disorders (Delimaris, 2013). Therefore, from a health perspective, it is important to reduce consumption of red and processed meat as much as possible.

High meat consumption also poses a risk to human health through the contribution to antibiotic resistance. Raising animals on factory farms increases the risk of disease through poor sanitary conditions and high levels of stress, while the close proximity of animals to each other means that disease spreads easily from one animal to another (World Animal Protection, 2023a). As a result of this, antibiotics are routinely used to control the spread of disease. Approximately 75% of all known antibiotics are used for raising farm animals, which contributes to the emergence of antibiotic resistant bacteria (World Animal Protection, 2023b). Antibiotic resistance is already responsible for around 700,000 deaths each year, which is projected to increase to 10 million deaths per year by 2050 (Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance, 2019).      

The good news is that many of these negative health effects can be avoided simply by eating less meat and more food from plants. You can easily get enough protein through a plant-based diet, without the need to eat any meat (Macdiarmid et al., 2018). The average intake of fruits, vegetables, and plant-sourced protein across Europe, Latin America, and North America is only half of recommended levels at the moment (Willett et al., 2013). Therefore, eating more tasty food from plants instead of meat can improve health and quality of life. 

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Boada et al. (2016). https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0278691516301144

Delimaris, I. (2013). https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.5402/2013/126929

Farvid et al. (2021). https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10654-021-00741-9

Interagency Coordination Group on Antimicrobial Resistance. (2019). https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/no-time-to-wait-securing-the-future-from-drug-resistant-infections#:~:text=Overview,future%20from%20drug%2Dresistant%20diseases

Macdiarmid et al. (2018). https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0192649

Willett et al. (2019). https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(18)31788-4/abstract

World Animal Protection. (2023a). https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/siteassets/reports/is-factory-farming-killing-us-supp-2023.pdf

World Animal Protection. (2023b). https://www.worldanimalprotection.org.uk/latest/news/overuse-antibiotics-uk-factory-farms-deaths/#:~:text=Antibiotic%20resistance%20poses%20a%20risk,are%20intended%20for%20entire%20herds