Green Groups Join Forces

Viva Health and animal group Viva! have joined forces with the green energy company Ecotricity to dispel the most common myths about vegetarian food and explain why the greenest diet is also the healthiest.

There are many popular misconceptions about vegetarian food. Viva Health’s senior health campaigner Dr Justine Butler and Ecotricity founder Dale Vince put their heads together to compile a list of the Top Ten Food Myths – and busted them! The collaboration is featured on Dale’s blog Zero Carbonista zerocarbonista.com/top-ten-food-choice-myths-busted Viva Health’s Justine Butler says: “Contrary to what some people believe, a well-balanced veggie diet not only provides all the calcium, iron, protein and vitamin B12 you need but also protects against the UK’s biggest killers: heart disease, diabetes and some cancers. A vegetarian or vegan diet also is the greenest diet having a significantly lower impact on the environment than a diet rich in meat and dairy foods.” Dale Vince agrees: “In fact it’s most inefficient for us to use animals to get our nutrition. For example it takes roughly ten kilos of vegetable protein (fed to a cow) to make one kilo of meat! Animals consume huge quantities of water (something that will be increasingly scarce in the world) and they belch and fart their way to being one of the biggest contributors to climate change – a bigger cause than transport at some 18 per cent globally.” It costs vastly more to feed a meat-eater than a vegan or vegetarian, it adds massively to climate change, it brings serious (and awful) health problems. And it costs a shed load of oil (and rainforest) into the bargain. Not to mention it’s not a very nice way to treat animals. “It’s clearly more sustainable not to eat animals or their by products and clearly a big step to fighting climate change. It also brings big health benefits and it’s a far cheaper diet. To find out why oily fish is not a health food, why red-blooded men don’t need meat and why soya foods are not as scary as some people think see the Top Ten Food Choice Myths – Busted!”

Viva Health can provide all the information you need about how to go veggie and vegan, offering hundreds of nutritious recipes, scientifically-referenced reports, information and advice. Please visit www.vegetarian.org.uk or call 0117 970 5190. For more information about switching to Ecotricity visit www.ecotricity.co.uk or call 0800 0326 100.