Oxford University research has today revealed that, in countries such as the US, the UK, Australia and across Western Europe, adopting a vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian diet could slash your food bill by up to one-third.
The study, which compared the cost of seven sustainable diets to the current typical diet in 150 countries, using food prices from the World Bank’s International Comparison Program, was published in The Lancet Planetary Health.
It found that in high-income countries:
- Vegan diets were the most affordable and reduced food costs by up to one third.
- Vegetarian diets were a close second.
- Flexitarian diets with low amounts of meat and dairy reduced costs by 14%.
- By contrast, pescatarian diets increased costs by up to 2%.
‘We think the fact that vegan, vegetarian and flexitarian diets can save you a lot of money is going to surprise people,’ says Dr Marco Springmann, researcher on the Oxford Martin Programme on the Future of Food.