Plant Based Future (part 2)

Reducing our intake of animal proteins

What's wrong with eating animal proteins? In principle nothing, then animal proteins are complete protein sources and the highest existing quality protein sources. Plant protein sources are incomplete sources and lack one or more amino acids, which make it more challenging to get all the necessary amino acids that your body needs. But looking from a sustainable point of view: animal proteins use much more resources than plant proteins or any other proteins, for example water resources, and animal proteins have a very negative impact on the global greenhouse gas emissions. So for a healthy diet we should not discard completely all animal proteins from our diets, but we should reduce their intake and still create a healthy balanced diet which at the same time is also healthy for our planet

In the following diagrams i would like to share a bit more the sustainable impact of animal proteins, and afterwards i would like to share some ideas and suggestions for a more plant focused diet, were animal proteins still can play a part by creating a win win situation for our health and our planet.

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In this diagram you see the amount of Greenhouse Gas Emissions per kg produced protein, with both Lamb and Beef being top off the list.

And in this diagram you see how many kg of protein come out of 15.000 l of water, for example with 15.000l water we end up with 1 kg beef, compared to 3.6 kg chicken or 6.2 kg of rice.

So knowing how many resources it needs to produce 1 Kg of animal protein and how many greenhouse gas emissions are generated, we should look at our average intake of animal proteins per person per year, and looking at the numbers in Switzerland in the diagram below, we can see we consume an average of 55 KG animal proteins per person per year, so with a small reduction of this consumption we could already create a big impact.

Example

Eating 1 kg Beef, less per person per year in Switzerland, would save up to approximately 127.500.000.000 L Water,

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I would like to share some easy to execute ideas and suggestions how each and everyone of us can reduce animal proteins in their daily diet and still enjoy a delicious and nutritious healthy meal.

• Eat less

The first and easiest way to reduce the intake of animal proteins is by just reducing your daily intake of meat and meat products and especially red meat.

Eating smaller portions of meat can be the first and easiest way to reduce the intake, or also a very easy way is to implement some animal protein free days in your week, as there are so many delicious dishes such as vegetarian and vegan dishes. By just reducing the meat consumption from 7 to maybe only 4 or 5 days a week we can create a very fast and impactful decrease of animal proteins

Also nowadays, there are many many animal protein replacement dishes made 100% out of plant proteins such as Soy or Pea proteins.

And finally replacing your meat intake regularly with sustainable low trophic fish proteins can also contribute to reducing the most un-sustainable red meat proteins

• Portion control

Portion control is an easy way to reduce your daily intake, by just reducing the portion size of the animal protein and increasing the dish portion with more vegetables or sides.

An average intake of animal protein for a main dish, is around 150 gr. , by reducing this to a portion of 80 - 100 gr. and instead replacing it with more vegetables or sides such as grains, pulses, potatoes or whatever you fancy, and combined with nuts and seeds for an additional protein and crunch, the reduction of the animal protein wont be noticed

Another possibility which works very well and easy to execute are stews, in stews it's very easy to reduce the animal protein volume and replace it by more vegetables or starches, or with plant proteins or other less impactful animal proteins, such as all kinds of pulses and/or beans

Another possibility is also to use different plant proteins, pork is more sustainable than beef, farmed Salmon is more sustainable than Pork, and Chicken is more sustainable than Farmed Salmon, by replacing the protein by a more sustainable different protein in a recipes or a dish its a very easy win situation, so choose wisely wenn you are doing your shopping.

• Mixed Proteins

With mixing proteins we can initially reduce the volume of animal proteins in many dishes

by replacing part of the amount of animal proteins in a dish with plant proteins, it's an easy win win solution, as many plant proteins have a similar Umami taste and consistency as animal proteins.

By replacing 50 % of the animal protein in a dish with plant proteins we have an impactful reduction, although the portion and the taste of the dish are still similar to the original dish with exclusively only animal proteins.

A very good example is a mixed burger, or also called flipped Burger, just by replacing 50% of the minced beef with for example mushrooms or lentils or grains or seeds, whatever you fancy you can create a personalised delicious Burger and still reduce your intake of animal proteins (red meat) for the day.

Another dish for reducing animal proteins is by stuffing a smaller portion of animal protein with vegetables or pulses or other proteins. We all now dishes like “Cordon Blue” or "Scallopini", by reducing the portion of animal protein and filling it with plant proteins, vegetables, grains, seeds or any other kind of ingredients, the final portion size will be identical, but the amount of animal protein is reduced. A delicious example could be scallopini with mushrooms, roasted nuts and dried fruits.

• Fake animal proteins

Checking out the supermarket nowadays there are more and more vegan and vegetarian products that replace well known animal protein products, such as many different burgers, sausages, cold cuts and other well known animal protein products, but all made out of plant proteins, such as soybeans, pea's and many other pulses.

Personally not my favourites, but they do help the course of reducing animal proteins.

There are still many unknowns about the added ingredients in these products, but in the end every meat free burger supports us to reduce the intake of animal proteins and supports our planet.

So there are many possibilities and ideas to reduce animal proteins in our daily diets by just thinking more plant focused, and without having to turn to explicitly vegetarian or vegan diets, and the most positive thing of plant focused diets are that we can still enjoy many of the foods and proteins we like and simultaneously support our personal health and the health of our planet.