Increasing consumption of beans would save the average household £100 a year and billions of litres of water, research has found.
The intel from think tank Green Alliance has revealed that replacing the equivalent of two pork sausages per person per week with pulses grown in the UK would provide the same amount of protein and cut average household annual food bills by almost £100.
After an unprecedented summer of heatwaves with severe water shortages, the research also showed the reduction could save 45 billion litres of water, equivalent to 82% of the capacity of the proposed new reservoir in Cambridgeshire.
“This summer showed us the extent to which the UK’s water system is now under strain from climate change,” said Matilda Dunn, policy analyst at Green Alliance. “How we use every litre of water will matter more in future.
“As well as investing in new reservoirs, we should also be looking at how to use less water, and that includes growing and eating foods that don’t use so much.”
It would also cut greenhouse gas emissions from agriculture, in line with recommendations from the government’s advisers at the Climate Change Committee, the think tank said, as well as providing health benefits in line with NHS recommendations.
“Meat is a dietary staple in the UK, but pulses like beans, lentils and peas need 95% less domestic freshwater per kg than beef to produce, and they’re a healthy alternative source of protein at a fraction of the cost,” she added.
Green Alliance has called on the government to back policies that “support UK farmers to grow more pulses and help people to include more in their diets”.
It comes as new data published in the European Journal of Nutrition has found replacing two to four servings of red and processed meat a week could add up to nine months to the average life expectancy of UK adults.
The study found that cutting meat by a third to a half and adding just an extra serving of vegetables and legumes at each meal could avert up to 4.5 million cases of diet-related chronic disease over the next 30 years and save nearly 11 million years of life currently lost to premature mortality.
The findings highlight that approximately 95% of these projected health gains are concentrated in cardiovascular outcomes, particularly heart disease and stroke .
“The strength of this evidence is hard to ignore,” said Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London. “Small shifts in what we eat could translate into major gains for public health and reduce the burden on an already overstretched NHS.”
He added: “Many of the same dietary shifts also put less pressure on the environment so there is a real opportunity to improve public health and build a more sustainable food system simultaneously.”
No comments yet