Eating greens 'makes you greener'

VEGETARIANS save 20 per cent at the checkout and have sixfold lower greenhouse gas emissions than carnivores, a new study shows.

Research comparing diets heavy, light and free of meat has found that vegetarianism is cheaper, healthier and easier on the environment.

But dieticians urge caution with the study, produced by the manufacturer Sanitarium, which is owned by the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, saying going meat-free is not necessarily better.

The findings show it costs $508 a week to feed four adults on a traditional meat diet. A reduced meat diet costs $418 a week, while a vegetarian diet costs $394.

"A massive 20 per cent reduction in costs can be achieved by maintaining the vegetarian diet," the company said in a statement.

The analysis also showed the plant-based diet used 50 per cent less water, led to 12 times less land being cleared and had six times lower greenhouse gas emissions than a meat rich diet similar to the CSIRO Total Wellbeing Diet.

It also contained almost 50 per cent lower saturated fat and 25 per cent more fibre and folate.
"The findings will shock most Australians and should cause a rethink about what we eat every day," Sanitarium said.

But Dr Manny Noakes, a weight loss scientist and co-author of the CSIRO diet, said while vegetarian diets could be beneficial, they could also be unhealthy.

"We have to be fairly careful about painting all vegetarian diets with the same healthy brush because there are many things, like doughnuts for instance, that are very unhealthy but could be part of such a diet," Dr Noakes said.

"The most important thing to remember is that some of the benefits of vegetarianism are not just due to the diet but the lifestyle, like not smoking, not drinking much and doing lots of physical activity."

http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24384992-12377,00.html