Replacing red meat with three cheaper foods could save many lives.
As red meat is increasingly associated with the causes of climate change, and studies aimed at showing its impact on human health are multiplying, Australian and Japanese researchers have conducted a study showing that alternatives, good for health and that of the planet, exist.
The researchers, who looked ahead 25 years, concluded that replacing red meat with cheaper and more accessible foods could save between 500,000 and 750,000 lives per year by 2050, or more than 18 million people over 25 years. Red meat plays a major role in the development of non-communicable diseases such as diabetes, colorectal cancer and cardiovascular events. A profound change in eating habits would be particularly effective in low-income countries.
According to this study, to achieve these figures, red meat would have to be replaced by 3 foods, which are in reality 3 different fish, called “fodder”: sardines, anchovies, herring. The study was taken up by the British media The Guardian is based on the fishing and red meat consumption habits of more than 130 countries.
However, the researchers remain lucid and explain that “this will only replace a fraction (8%) of red meat consumption due to the limited resources that the species represents.”
The interest in replacing meat with fish is also ecological: beef production weighs heavily on the planet. The scientific community estimates that it takes between 550 and 700 liters of water to produce 1 kilo of beef. Conversely, researchers estimate that the carbon footprint of forage fish is the lowest of all animal-based food sources, even though it is the most abundant fish species in the world.
“Compared to red meat, forage fish such as salmon are excellent sources of fatty acids and are rich in essential micronutrients such as calcium and vitamin B12,” the study highlights.
Currently, only 26% of the catch of these small fish is intended for human consumption. Forage fish are not immune to overfishing, however, in poor countries where animal breeding is less, the species proliferates and would allow the population to be fed, while reducing the risk of developing certain pathologies such as diabetes.