The Necessary Transition Towards Healthier Diets: An Assessment of Replacing Meat and Refined Wheat Flour with a Mixture of Different Plant-Based Foods

Currently, at least one third of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions come from the agricultural sector, with meat production making a particularly significant contribution. Therefore, alongside the ongoing efforts to transform transport and cut its emissions, it is essential to adopt urgent measures that limit GHG emissions from food production, consumption and distribution. Without them, the Paris Agreement goal of net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 cannot be met, and the most severe impacts of climate change will not be avoided. In principle, lowering emissions from the global food system may appear simple, as no new technology (for example, electric cars or carbon-neutral fuels) is required to decarbonize transport. However, since meat consumption accounts for the majority of food related GHG emissions, it must be coupled with a sharp reduction in the large-scale production and consumption of animal foods. Encouragingly, a growing number of consumers already choose diets that are both healthy and environmentally sustainable. As meat reduction gains popularity in these groups, plant-based products are expanding in the marketplace, mainly in the form of snacks, pasta, pizzas and especially vegan or vegetarian burgers. Thus, almost spontaneously, components of the Westernized diet, rich in ultra-processed foods, salt, sugar and animal protein, are gradually being replaced by plant-derived nutrients that are healthier and more environmentally friendly. To accelerate this trend, legal measures could be introduced to improve the nutritional quality of widely consumed, low-nutrient snacks and to promote agricultural reforms that encourage the production of nutrient-dense legumes and pseudocereals.