Sustainability benefits of transitioning from current diets to plant-based alternatives or whole-food diets in Sweden

Abstract

Plant-based alternatives (PBAs) are increasingly becoming part of diets. Here, we investigate the environmental, nutritional, and economic implications of replacing animal-source foods (ASFs) with PBAs or whole foods (WFs) in the Swedish diet. Utilising two functional units (mass and energy), we model vegan, vegetarian, and flexitarian scenarios, each based on PBAs or WFs. Our results demonstrate that PBA-rich diets substantially reduce greenhouse gas emissions (30-52%), land use (20-45%), and freshwater use (14-27%), with the vegan diet showing the highest reduction potential. We observe comparable environmental benefits when ASFs are replaced with WFs, underscoring the need to reduce ASF consumption. PBA scenarios meet most Nordic Nutrition Recommendations, except for vitamin B12, vitamin D and selenium, while enhancing iron, magnesium, folate, and fibre supply and decreasing saturated fat. Daily food expenditure slightly increases in the PBA scenarios (3-5%) and decreases in the WF scenarios (4-17%), with PBA diets being 10-20% more expensive than WF diets. Here we show, that replacing ASFs with PBAs can reduce the environmental impact of current Swedish diets while meeting most nutritional recommendations, but slightly increases food expenditure. We recommend prioritising ASF reduction and diversifying WFs and healthier PBAs to accommodate diverse consumer preferences during dietary transitions.

Fig. 1. Nutritional performance of the current diet and alternative dietary scenarios in alignment with the Recommended Dietary Allowances provided by the Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (0 = respective recommended nutrient level).

Green space (above 0 in the positive nutrients, below 0 in the negative) indicates meeting or extending the recommended levels, red space (below 0 in the negative nutrients, above 0 in the positive) indicates not meeting (or exceeding in nutrients to limit) recommended levels. BAU Average Swedish Diet, VGNPBA Vegan Diet, all animal source foods (ASFs) replaced by plant-based alternatives (PBAs), VGTPBA Vegetarian Diet, meat and seafood replaced by respective PBAs, FLXPBA 50% reduction of ASFs replaced by PBAs, VGNWHOLE Vegan Diet, all ASFs replaced by WFs), VGTWHOLE Vegetarian Diet, meat and seafood replaced by WFs, FLXWHOLE 50% reduction of ASFs replaced by WFs. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Fig. 2. Environmental impact of the current diet and alternative dietary scenarios based on a mass-based functional unit.

Contribution by different food categories to impact categories. The category “other” includes sugar and sugar-based products, salt, soft drinks, coffee (roasted powder) and juice. BAU Average Swedish Diet; VGNPBA Vegan Diet, all animal source foods (ASFs) replaced by plant-based alternatives (PBAs); VGTPBA Vegetarian Diet, meat and seafood replaced by respective PBAs; FLXPBA = 50% reduction of ASFs replaced by PBAs; VGNWHOLE Vegan Diet, all ASFs replaced by whole foods (WFs); VGTWHOLE Vegetarian Diet, meat and seafood replaced by WFs; FLXWHOLE  = 50% reduction of ASFs replaced by WFs. The acronym PB in the food category means plant-based. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.

Fig. 3. Daily Food Expenditure (SEK per day) in June 2022 by dietary scenario and food group.

10 SEK = 0,9€/0.96 US$. Bar height corresponds to median values of daily food expenditure. Error bars indicate the lower (25^th) and upper (75^th) percentile for the daily food expenditure aggregated for all food groups (n = price for 940 food items aggregated in n = 15 food groups). Other include sugar and sugar-based products, salt, soft drinks, and juice. BAU Average Swedish Diet; VGNPBA Vegan Diet, all animal source foods (ASFs) replaced by plant-based alternatives (PBAs); VGTPBA Vegetarian Diet, meat and seafood replaced by respective PBAs; FLXPBA = 50% reduction of ASFs replaced by PBAs, VGNWHOLE Vegan Diet, all ASFs replaced by whole foods (WFs); VGTWHOLE Vegetarian Diet, meat& seafood replaced by WFs; FLXWHOLE = 50% reduction of ASFs replaced by WFs. The acronym PB in the food category means plant-based. Source data are provided as a Source Data file.