Protein swap: Improve your health and the planet by eating fewer animals and more plants, researchers suggest

cheryl

cheryl

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Protein swap: Improve your health and the planet by eating fewer animals and more plants, researchers suggest - Stanford

In the campus office of Christopher Gardner, PhD, a nutrition specialist, sits a sculpture of a chicken. It's no ordinary chicken sculpture — the body takes the shape of a curvy eggplant; the beak, a pointy carrot and from its rear sprouts a feathery tail of tomato vines.

It's purpose is more than just quirky decor; I think the veggie-chicken captures the core message of Gardner's latest review paper, which appears in Nutrition Reviews.

The paper takes a close look at protein consumption habits in the United States, and the big-picture effect it has on climate change and resource use. The long and short of it is, Americans eat the most meat (and protein) of any country in the world, and as a whole, we could stand to cut back.

In this review, Gardner breaks down what we really need to satisfy our protein needs, recommending a partial shift from meat-based protein to plant-based protein. After all, he says, both sources provide roughly the same quality of protein.
 
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