How Green Is It… To Eat Lettuce?

by The Green Living Detective 3,733 views0

How green is it to eat lettuce?

Isn’t lettuce, like, THE best thing you can eat for your body, your health, your gut, and like, the whole entire world!?

Researchers studied the water use, emissions, and energy cost per calorie of the new(ish) dietary guidelines by the USDA… and decided, not really.

It didn’t take long for the study’s press release to be picked up worldwide:

“Eating lettuce is more harmful to the environment than eating bacon.”

If we really eat what they recommend, we’d increase our energy use by 43%, water use by 16%, and greenhouse gas emissions by 11%.

Sooooo… can I go ahead and replace my lettuce with bacon in the name of the environment? (Please say yes!)

The hard truth is that lettuce takes a lot of water and energy to produce, is difficult to transport, doesn’t have much caloric or nutritional value, and will go wilty or slimy pretty fast.

Although, lettuce isn’t alone here.

Take celery. You can crunch crunch crunch all day on celery and actually lose overall calories. Like lettuce, celery takes a lot out of the environment for very little return.

When the zombie apocalypse hits, no one is going to waste time growing or eating celery. Or lettuce for that matter.

One rebuttal to the bacon-lettuce showdown argued (rightly) no one eats lettuce to get more calories in our diets. We eat it for the nutrients, vitamins, for fiber, for health, and for taste. And to reach the same amount of calories for 4 slices of bacon, you have to eat 93 cups of lettuce.

The real takeaway is there’s a complex relationship between what we eat and how those foods impact the environment.

Some healthy foods are actually worse for the environment than not-so-healthy foods.

So… How Green Is It To Eat Lettuce?

Sort-of-Green

Best Green Solution: When you do buy lettuce, make sure you eat it before it goes bad.

Don’t Be Tempted: Don’t use this as an excuse to stuff your face with bacon. Get real. Most green living enthusiasts, scientists, public health experts, nutritionists, and your mother encourage more vegetables and less meat, sugar, and processed foods.


 

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The Green Living Detective

One day, I just couldn't wash out the squishy peanut butter jar one more time. But I didn't know what was the most responsible way to get rid of it. So, I became the Green Living Detective. I spend the time doing rigorous research on green living questions so you don't have to. When I'm not the Green Living Detective, I am an environmental copywriter and mom of one kiddo who holds me to higher green living standards than I might do on my own. Progress Over Perfection, I keep telling her.

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