Scarborough et al., 2012

Scarborough, P., Allender, S., Clarke, D., Wickramasinghe, K., & Rayner, M. (2012). Modelling the health impact of environmentally sustainable dietary scenarios in the UK. European journal of clinical nutrition, 66(6), 710-715.

https://www.nature.com/articles/ejcn201234

Context: UK

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: Food is responsible for around one-fifth of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from products
consumed in the UK, the largest contributor of which is meat and dairy. The Committee on Climate Change have modelled the
impact on GHG emissions of three dietary scenarios for food consumption in the UK. This paper models the impact of the three scenarios on mortality from cardiovascular disease and cancer.

SUBJECTS/METHODS: A previously published model (DIETRON) was used. The three scenarios were parameterised by fruit and
vegetables, fibre, total fat, saturated fat, monounsaturated fatty acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, cholesterol and salt using the
2008 Family Food Survey. A Monte Carlo simulation generated 95% credible intervals.

RESULTS:

• Scenario 1 (50% reduction in meat and dairy replaced by fruit, vegetables and cereals)
  • 19% reduction in GHG emissions
  • 36,910 (30,192 to 43,592) deaths delayed or averted per year.
• Scenario 2 (75% reduction in cow and sheep meat replaced by pigs and poultry)
  • 9% reduction in GHG emissions
  • 1999 (1739 to 2389) deaths delayed or averted.
• Scenario 3 (50% reduction in pigs and poultry replaced with fruit, vegetables and cereals)
  • 3% reduction in GHG emissions
  • 9297 (7288 to 11,301) deaths delayed or averted.

CONCLUSION: Modelled results suggest that public health and climate change dietary goals are in broad alignment with the
largest results in both domains occurring when consumption of all meat and dairy products are reduced. Further work in real-life
settings is needed to confirm these results.

Implications

• Notice how swapping out 50% of pork and chicken for plants resulted in far more deaths prevented than swapping 75% of breed for pork and chicken