Eating beans can cut household bills
Eating beans can cut household bills by £100 a year and save billions of litres of water, reducing food bills and water consumption.
Research from think tank Green Alliance found that increasing consumption of beans could save the average household £100 a year and billions of litres of water. Replacing two pork sausages per person per week with pulses grown in the UK would provide the same amount of protein and cut average household annual food bills by almost £100.
The reduction could also save 45 billion litres of water, equivalent to 82% of the capacity of the proposed new reservoir in Cambridgeshire. This comes after an unprecedented summer of heatwaves with severe water shortages.
Matilda Dunn, policy analyst at Green Alliance, stated that the summer showed the extent to which the UK’s water system is now under strain from climate change. She noted that how every litre of water is used will matter more in the future. Dunn added that investing in new reservoirs is not enough, and that growing and eating foods that don’t use much water is also essential.
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Green Alliance has called on the government to back policies that support UK farmers to grow more pulses and help people include more in their diets. Pulses like beans, lentils, and peas need 95% less domestic freshwater per kg than beef to produce, and are a healthy alternative source of protein at a fraction of the cost.
A new study published in the European Journal of Nutrition found that replacing two to four servings of red and processed meat a week could add up to nine months to the average life expectancy of UK adults. Cutting meat by a third to a half and adding an extra serving of vegetables and legumes at each meal could avert up to 4.5 million cases of diet-related chronic disease over the next 30 years.
Hugh Montgomery, professor of intensive care medicine at University College London, said that small shifts in what people eat could translate into major gains for public health and reduce the burden on the NHS. He added that many of the same dietary shifts also put less pressure on the environment, providing an opportunity to improve public health and build a more sustainable food system simultaneously.
