The future eats vegetarian

Rising consumption of meat worldwide is met with criticism due to its negative impacts on the environment and human health. The SRF Puls health program (28 August 2019) recently featured one attractive potential alternative to replace meat: pulses, such as beans, peas, and lentils. On average, each Swiss citizen consumes 770 grams of meat and only 35 grams of pulses per week. In the future, the international EAT-Commission suggests a diet of 300 grams meat and 525 grams of pulses per person per week to achieve a Healthy Diet From Sustainable Food Systems. Prof. Alexander Mathys, ETH Zurich professor of Sustainable Food Processing, calculated what advantages such a change in diet would have in Switzerland. He concludes that Switzerland could spare one third of its negative environmental impacts of meat production, while saving one third of costs.

In addition to their high content of carbohydrates, vitamins, minerals, and iron, pulses are also very rich in proteins, which are essential for building blocks of muscles and bones. Some pulses, such as lentils or soybeans, even contain more protein than meat. In the report, ETH Zurich Prof. Laura Nyström highlights vegetarian proteins being able to nutritional replace animal proteins depends on the contained amino acids. Pulses do not contain all essential amino acids; however, by combining pulses with cereals such as rice or wheat, a nutritious alternative is achieved.

Changing the consumer behavior towards new diets is challenging, and Dr. Christina Hartmann of the ETH Zurich Consumer Bahviour Group, investigates what influences eating habits and how they can be changed. In the SRF Puls report, she comments that consumers are relatively conservative. They do not like to change their food habits and often refuse to include new food products in their meal plan, which has been constructed over many years.

Watch the entire external page SRF Puls report (in German) here