As the world grapples with climate change and chronic disease, the shift toward plant-based eating is gaining momentum, especially in Europe. Broadly, while only about 1.1% of the global population currently identifies as vegan, the trend is accelerating.

Germany’s vegan population doubled between 2016 and 2020, and the UK reported a 2.4-fold increase between 2023 and 2025, reaching 4.7%.

But what’s driving this change? For many, it’s the promise of better health. Transitioning from a typical Western diet to a vegan one can reduce the risk of premature death from noncommunicable diseases by an estimated 18% to 21%.

A new study, published last week in Frontiers in Nutrition, has shed a more defined light on another compelling reason: the planet.

Four-way showdown

Led by Dr Noelia Rodriguez-Martín of the Spanish National Research Council, researchers compared four nutritionally balanced diets—omnivorous Mediterranean, pesco-vegetarian, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and vegan—each delivering 2,000 kilocalories per day.

The menus were crafted using guidelines from leading nutrition authorities across Europe and the US, and analysed for both nutritional adequacy and environmental impact.

The results were striking:

• Greenhouse gas emissions dropped by 46% when switching from Mediterranean to vegan.
• Land use fell by 33%.
• Water consumption decreased by 7%.
• Ecosystem impact indicators—including ozone depletion and water toxicity—were reduced by more than 50%.
• Disease incidence dropped by over 55%.

Nutrients without compromise

All three plant-based diets met nutritional benchmarks, with only vitamin D, iodine, and B12 requiring extra attention—an expected caveat in vegan nutrition. The vegan menu featured plant-based staples like tofu, tempeh, soy yoghurt, legumes, seeds, and textured soy protein, replacing all animal-derived ingredients.

Rodriguez-Martín emphasised that the more plant-forward the diet, the greater the environmental benefit. While pesco-vegetarian and ovo-lacto-vegetarian diets also showed improvements—cutting carbon emissions by roughly 35%—the vegan diet consistently outperformed across all metrics

Every bite counts

For those not ready to go fully vegan, the study offers a hopeful message: incremental change matters.

“You don’t need to go fully vegan to make a difference,” said Rodriguez-Martín. “Even small steps toward a more plant-based diet reduce emissions and save resources. Every meal that includes more plants helps move us toward healthier people and a healthier planet.”

At Wholefoodliving.life, we’ve long championed the power of food as medicine—and also, as a tool for planetary healing. This study adds weight to the growing evidence that what’s good for our bodies also works wonders for Mother Earth.