Refusing meat was more harmful to the environment than using it.

Going to give up meat? Do not hurry. A new study by scientists from Carnegie Mellon University showed that eating vegetables and fruits can do much more harm to the environment than a meat diet. According to this indicator, the popular salad turned out to be three times more harmful than the smoked beef pork belly loved by many.

A study published in the journalEnvironment Systems and Decisions, goes against the popular idea that giving up meat will help stop climate change. The bottom line is that food production like lettuce is associated with higher resource costs and harmful emissions into the atmosphere per calorie compared to certain types of meat.

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Follow nutritional guidelines developed byThe US Department of Agriculture, according to the study, turned out to be more harmful to the environment due to a variety of factors. This is despite the reduction in calories consumed.

Many vegetables require far more resources than you think. Eggplants, celery and cucumbers look especially bad on the background of pork or chicken, the scientists said.

What is harmful refusal of meat

Scientists have concluded that if you exclude meatfrom the diet and reduce calorie intake to the level recommended by the US Department of Agriculture, the negative impact on the environment will increase. The result will look like this: energy consumption will increase by 38 percent, water consumption - by 10 percent, and greenhouse gas emissions - by 6 percent.

It has long been known that 90 percent of the heatresulting from human activity, absorbed by the oceans. Most experts are concerned about the rate of increase in ocean temperature. With a decrease in the absorptive capacity of the ocean, heat begins to accumulate in the atmosphere. And this leads to a violation of the thermal balance of the Earth.

Of course, the scenario of scientists surely impliesmass abandonment of meat, which in modern conditions is not possible. It is curious that the production of artificial meat will not benefit the environment: scientists conducted a simulation of reducing the consumption of natural meat, which showed that although the peak emissions from livestock production are higher, the figures then decrease and stabilize. Carbon dioxide from the production of artificial meat, in turn, is stored in the atmosphere and accumulates.

Read also - Production of artificial meat will not benefit the environment

In any case, the person himself must decide thatto eat, but if you limit yourself in meat products for the sake of the environment, it is not worth it. If you refuse animal products, then for your own health (if necessary) or because of certain beliefs. Do not forget that even eggs were previously considered the creation of dark forces for their cholesterol content. Then in 1995, the study showed that even if there are two eggs a day, there will be no negative consequences for the risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Eggs also contain many other good things, protein, vitamins, minerals, so now they are highly recommended for use.

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