Sustainability benefits of transitioning from current diets to plant-based alternatives or whole-food diets in Sweden

Abstract

Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) are increasingly becoming part of diets. Here, we investigate the environmental, nutritional, and economic implications of replacing animal-source foods (ASFs) with PBAs or whole foods (WFs) in the Swedish diet. Utilising two functional units (mass and energy), we model vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian scenarios, each based on PBAs or WFs. Our results demonstrate that PBA-rich diets substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions (30–52%), land use (20–45%), and freshwater use (14–27%), with the vegan diet showing the highest reduction potential. We observe comparable environmental benefits when ASFs are replaced with WFs, underscoring the need to reduce ASF consumption. PBA scenarios meet most Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, except for vitamin B12, vitamin D and selenium, while enhancing iron, magnesium, folate, and fibre supply and decreasing saturated fat. Daily food expenditure slightly increases in the PBA scenarios (3–5%) and decreases in the WF scenarios (4–17%), with PBA diets being 10–20% more expensive than WF diets. Here we show, that replacing ASFs with PBAs can reduce the environmental impact of current Swedish diets while meeting most nutritional recommendations, but slightly increases food expenditure. We recommend prioritising ASF reduction and diversifying WFs and healthier PBAs to accommodate diverse consumer preferences during dietary transitions.

Socioeconomic pathways toward sustainable food systems

“…Meanwhile, relatively higher prices of novel or alternative food hinder the adoption of sustainable diets, especially for low socioeconomic groups (e.g., Bruce and Som Castellano, 2017;Lewis et al, 2021). However, in higher-income settings, the inclusion of whole food or plant-based alternatives only slightly increases food expenditure while benefiting the health and environmental outcomes of diets (Bunge et al, 2024). The need to identify sustainable food system principles and measure the effects As the topic of sustainable food systems is broad, it is foreseeable that our initial screening found heterogeneous and widespread documentation of the topics in terms of focus, methodological approach, and geographical scope, among others.…”

“…The perceived high price of plant-based meat substitutes and other alternative foods hinders consumers from consuming those food options (Eckl et al, 2021). Though in particular contexts, the high cost of alternatives is really only a perception instead of a reality (e.g., Bunge et al, 2024). Subsidies for plant-based meat substitutes and subsidy removal for livestock and meat production can make novel and alternative food competitive, therefore increasing consumption (Jallinoja et al, 2016;Sievert et al, 2021).…”