Less meat, more legumes: prospects and challenges in the transition toward sustainable diets in Sweden

Abstract

The Western diet is characterized by high meat consumption, which negatively affects the environment and human health. Transitioning toward eating more plant-based products in Western societies has been identified as a key instrument to tackle these problems. However, one potential concern is that radically reducing meat in the current diet might lead to deficiencies in nutritional intake. In this paper, we explore a scenario in which meat consumption in Sweden is reduced by 50% and replaced by domestically grown grain legumes. We quantify and discuss the implications for nutritional intake on population level, consequences for agricultural production systems and environmental performance. The reduction in meat consumption is assumed to come primarily from a decrease in imported meat. We use data representing current Swedish conditions including the Swedish dietary survey, the Swedish food composition database, Statistics Sweden and existing life cycle assessments for different food items. At population level, average daily intake of energy and most macro- and micro-nutrients would be maintained within the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations after the proposed transition (e.g., for protein, fat, zinc, vitamin B12 and total iron). The transition would also provide a considerable increase in dietary fiber and some increase in folate intake, which are currently below the recommended levels. The transition scenario would increase total area of grain legume cultivation from 2.2% (current level) to 3.2% of Swedish arable land and is considered technically feasible. The climate impact of the average Swedish diet would be reduced by 20% and the land use requirement by 23%. There would be a net surplus of approximately 21,500 ha that could be used for bioenergy production, crop production for export, nature conservation, etc. Implementation of this scenario faces challenges, such as lack of suitable varieties for varying conditions, lack of processing facilities to supply functional legume-based ingredients to food industries and low consumer awareness about the benefits of eating grain legumes. In sum, joint efforts from multiple actors are needed to stimulate a decrease in meat consumption and to increase cultivation and use of domestically grown grain legumes.

Changes in dietary carbon footprint over ten years relative to individual characteristics and food intake in the Västerbotten Intervention Programme

“…Our findings are in line with previous studies reporting that individuals with high dietary carbon footprint have higher intake of meat and dairy products 22,23 . Since foods from plant-based origin have relatively lower GHGE, a change towards a vegetarian or a vegan diet may reduce dietary carbon footprint [24][25][26] .…”

“…Furthermore, a Swedish study recently examined the nutritional quality of a diet when meat consumption was decreased by 50% and replaced with grain legumes. The results showed that such dietary changes could improve nutritional quality while concurrently decrease dietary carbon footprint by up to 20% 22 . Thus, messages to reduce and replace meat consumption could be a fruitful alternative to solely suggesting an exclusion of these food groups.…”

Diet and nutrient status of legume consumers in Sweden: a descriptive cross-sectional study

“…Legume foods can play a critical role in the transition towards more sustainable diets. Replacing 50% of meat consumption with legumes would reduce the climate impact of the Swedish diet by 20% [12]. For example, 1 kg of soaked and boiled legumes is responsible for 0.3 kg of CO 2 emissions, whereas 1 kg of prepared beef emits 45.9 kg CO 2 [13].…”

Harnessing Implementation Science and Self-Determination Theory in Participatory Research to Advance Global Legume Productivity

“…There is general agreement on the potential of legumes to provide a healthy, affordable, and sustainable contribution as a food source for humans (cf. Lüscher et al, 2014;Polak et al, 2015;Ivarsson and Wall, 2017;Joshi and Rao, 2017;Mottet et al, 2017;Röös et al, 2018). However, challenges associated with realizing this potential include variable and low yields, poor seed availability, lack of market, low awareness of indigenous legumes, and the lack of convenient food applications (Philips, 1993;Mtambanengwe and Mapfumo, 2009;Mhango et al, 2012), shifting consumer preferences away from meatheavy consumption, educating consumers about how to cook legumes and integrate them into their staple diets (Bezner Kerr et al, 2010;Polak et al, 2015), empowering women as agents of improved nutrition outcomes, taking local contexts into account and providing small producers with support to capitalize on changing market demand for delivering agricultural and nutritional improvements (Hawkes and Ruel, 2008).…”