Climatarian: eat for the climate. The beef is the problem, not the banana.
Food is about a third of the world's greenhouse gas emissions. Your plate can shrink your share a lot, and it mostly comes down to one choice. The good news: it's the same choice that's better for your heart.
The short version
- What it is
- Choosing food by its climate impact: much less beef, lamb and cheese, more plants, less waste.
- Good for
- Cutting your food emissions. Your heart and gut, as a side effect.
- Bad at
- Being simple at the shelf. Labels rarely show a carbon footprint.
- Evidence
- Strong on which foods emit most. Health evidence comes from the plant-forward diets it overlaps with.
- Our take
- Not a medical diet, so we don't score it. But the climate plate and the healthy plate are mostly the same plate.
What the climatarian diet actually is
There are no official rules. Being climatarian means asking one extra question when you choose food: how much does this cost the planet? Some climatarians go vegetarian. Most just cut ruminant meat (beef and lamb), eat more beans and vegetables, waste less, and stop worrying about the stuff that doesn't matter much.
Why bother? A global emissions database found that food systems, from farm to fork to bin, produced about 34% of all human-made greenhouse gas emissions in 2015.1 Most of that came from farming and land use, not from trucks and packaging.1
How it works
This is a planet article, so "how it works in your body" becomes "how it works in the world". The biggest study of food impacts so far pulled together data from about 38,700 farms. Its key finding: even the lowest-impact animal products typically have a bigger footprint than plant alternatives.2
Based on that data, a kilo of beef produces roughly 60 kg of CO2-equivalent emissions; a kilo of peas about 1 kg.3 Cows and sheep are ruminants: they burp methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and they need a lot of land. That's why beef and lamb sit at the top of every list, with cheese, farmed prawns and chocolate not far behind.3
And transport? For most foods it's under 10% of the footprint.3 In a US study, swapping less than one day a week of red meat and dairy calories for chicken, fish, eggs or plants cut more emissions than buying all your food locally.4
What you eat, what you don't
Eat
- Beans, lentils, chickpeas, peas, tofu
- Vegetables and fruit, including frozen
- Wholegrains, potatoes
- Nuts and seeds
- Eggs, chicken and fish in moderation
- Leftovers. Every time.
Forget it (or cut way down)
- Beef and lamb
- Lots of cheese and butter
- Farmed prawns
- Air-freighted fresh produce (fresh berries and asparagus out of season, for example)
- Food you buy and throw away
- Bottled water when tap water is safe
A day as a climatarian
It looks less like a sacrifice and more like a normal day where beef didn't get invited:
- Breakfast: oats with milk or soy drink, fruit and a spoon of seeds. Or eggs on wholegrain toast.
- Lunch: last night's leftovers, or a lentil soup with bread. Leftovers are the most underrated climate move in your kitchen.
- Dinner: chickpea curry with rice, a tofu stir-fry, or fish with potatoes and greens. Chicken is fine too.
- Snacks: fruit, a handful of nuts, yoghurt. Tap water to drink.
Shopping tip: plan the week, buy what you'll cook, and freeze what you won't get to in time. Bread, cooked rice, chopped vegetables and ripe bananas all freeze well.
Waste: the easy quarter
About a quarter of food's emissions come from food that is lost along the supply chain or thrown away, which works out at roughly 6% of all global greenhouse gas emissions.9 Every bag of salad that dies in your fridge took its emissions with it. Eating what you buy is free and needs no special shop.
In Singapore
Singapore imports more than 90% of its food,10 so "eat local" isn't really an option for most meals, and that's fine: what's on the plate matters more. At the hawker centre, tofu, egg, fish and chicken dishes beat beef rendang and mutton soup on carbon.3 Yong tau foo, vegetable-heavy economy rice and dhal with chapati are easy wins. Order what you'll finish, and say no to the extra side you never eat.
In Austria, Germany and Switzerland
The big lever is the Schnitzel, the Rindsgulasch and the cheese board. A Schnitzel made from chicken or pork instead of veal or beef, Linsen mit Spätzle, Erdäpfelgulasch, and bean or pea stews all cut the footprint a lot. Go easy on raclette and fondue (that's a lot of cheese per person), drink tap water, which is excellent across the region, and take the half portion of Gröstl you couldn't finish home for tomorrow.
Alcohol for climatarians
OK, now and then
- Local beer or wine, if that's what you drink anyway
- A spirit with soda water and lime
- Tap water with your meal
Skip it
- Cocktails with air-freighted fruit and sugar syrups
- Single-serve sweet mixers in cans
- Daily drinking: it's bad for you whatever its carbon footprint
50 Club: one glass of local wine or beer, with food.
The climate impact of your drinks matters much less than what's on your plate, and much less than what alcohol does to your liver. All the details are in our alcohol guide.
What it's good for, with proof
The climate plate is the healthy plate
A study of 15 foods compared how each one affects health and the environment. Whole grains, fruit, vegetables, beans, nuts and olive oil were linked to lower disease risk and had among the lowest environmental impacts. Unprocessed and processed red meat were linked to the biggest increases in disease risk and had the largest environmental impacts.5 Rare win-win.
A healthy diet for 10 billion people
The EAT-Lancet Commission designed a "planetary health diet": mostly vegetables, fruit, wholegrains, legumes and nuts, with modest amounts of fish and poultry and very little red meat.6 It updated the work in 2025.7 The pattern looks a lot like a flexitarian or Mediterranean diet.
The uncomfortable truth
"Eat local to save the planet." For most food, where it comes from matters far less than what it is.3,4 Local beef still has a far bigger footprint than imported lentils. Air-freighted food is the exception: it's rare, but heavy. See our page on seasonal and local eating.
"Plant-based junk is climate-friendly, so it's fine." A vegan doughnut may have a small footprint and still be a doughnut. The health side of the win-win only works with whole foods.5
The risks
- Protein gaps. Cutting meat without adding beans, lentils, tofu, eggs or fish can leave you short of protein.
- Iron and B12. Less red meat means planning iron (beans, greens, with vitamin C), and if you go fully plant-based, a B12 supplement.
- Guilt overload. Your plate matters, but it isn't the whole climate crisis. Do the big things, skip the anxiety about the small ones.
Allergies: watch the staples
| Climatarian staple | Allergen (EU list of 14)8 | Swap |
|---|---|---|
| Tofu, tempeh, soy drink | Soy | Lentils, chickpeas, pea protein |
| Peanuts, peanut butter | Peanuts | Sunflower seed butter |
| Walnuts, almonds, oat-and-nut bars | Tree nuts | Pumpkin and sunflower seeds |
| Seitan, wholegrain bread | Cereals containing gluten | Beans, brown rice, potatoes |
| Lupin flour in plant-based products | Lupin | Chickpea flour; check labels |
| Hummus, tahini | Sesame | White bean dip |
Don't go fully climatarian without a plan if you…
- are pregnant, breastfeeding, or feeding young children
- have iron-deficiency anaemia
- have several food allergies (soy, nuts, gluten) that limit plant proteins
- have ever had an eating disorder and use ethics as a reason to restrict
Healthen me asks about all of these and gives you a different plan if any apply.
How we use the climatarian diet in your plan
It's information only: we don't score your plan by carbon. But you'll notice the overlap. Our plans are built on vegetables, beans, fish, eggs and olive oil, with red meat as an occasional guest. If you want to go further, tell Healthen me you're cutting meat and read about the reducetarian approach.
This article is general information, not medical advice. If you have a medical condition or take medication, talk to your doctor before changing how you eat.
Sources
- Crippa M et al. Food systems are responsible for a third of global anthropogenic GHG emissions. Nature Food 2021;2(3):198–209. doi.org/10.1038/s43016-021-00225-9
- Poore J, Nemecek T. Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science 2018;360(6392):987–992. doi.org/10.1126/science.aaq0216
- Ritchie H. You want to reduce the carbon footprint of your food? Focus on what you eat, not whether your food is local. Our World in Data, 2020. ourworldindata.org/food-choice-vs-eating-local
- Weber CL, Matthews HS. Food-miles and the relative climate impacts of food choices in the United States. Environmental Science & Technology 2008;42(10):3508–3513. doi.org/10.1021/es702969f
- Clark MA et al. Multiple health and environmental impacts of foods. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 2019;116(46):23357–23362. doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1906908116
- Willett W et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet 2019;393(10170):447–492. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4
- Rockström J et al. The EAT-Lancet Commission on healthy, sustainable, and just food systems. Lancet 2025;406(10512):1625–1700. doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(25)01201-2
- Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011 on food information to consumers, Annex II (the 14 allergens). eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2011/1169/oj
- Ritchie H. Food waste is responsible for 6% of global greenhouse gas emissions. Our World in Data, 2020. ourworldindata.org/food-waste-emissions
- Singapore Food Agency. Singapore Food Statistics 2024. www.sfa.gov.sg/docs/default-source/publication/sg-food-statistics/singapore-food-statistics-2024.pdf