Popular diets as selected by adults in the United States show wide variation in carbon footprints and diet quality

The average carbon footprint for vegan diets is 0.69 kg CO-eq/1000 kcal, significantly lower than that of other popular diets.

• Vegan and vegetarian diets have lower carbon footprints compared to pescatarian, omnivore, paleo, and keto diets.
• The carbon footprints for pescatarian, omnivore, paleo, and keto diets are 1.66, 2.23, 2.62, and 2.91 kg CO-eq/1000 kcal, respectively.
• Pescatarian diets have the highest mean diet quality score, followed by vegetarian, omnivore, and keto diets.
• Mean Healthy Eating Index scores are 58.76 for pescatarian, 51.89 for vegetarian, 48.92 for omnivore, and 43.69 for keto diets.
• Plant-based diets may offer lower carbon footprints while potentially sacrificing some diet quality compared to pescatarian diets.

AI simplified