While cooking from home can help your household save money and you may enjoy cooking your favourite recipes such as home made fish and chips, spaghetti Bolognese and roasts, you may be surprised at the impact which your home cooking has on the environment. If you’re an environmentally conscious individual, simply continue reading to discover how environmentally friendly the nation’s home cooking really is. As you may be surprised by the results.
Red meat is not an environmentally friendly option:
Unfortunately red meat such as beef, pork and lamb have high carbon emissions, due to the fact that large livestock require large paddocks of farm land and produce large amounts of methane which contributes to the country’s greenhouse emissions. As an example, you may be surprised to learn that home made cod fish only produces approximately 2032 grams of carbon emission while cooking roast beef produces approximately 26573 grams of carbon dioxide. While mince prepared to serve in spaghetti Bolognese produces 13286 grams of carbon emissions. So you’re far better off opting for fish and chips for dinner, instead of preparing a roast dinner or spaghetti Bolognese.
A cooked breakfast is a green option if you forgo bacon and pork:
Most of the items in a traditional cooked breakfast have low carbon emissions such as potatoes which produce 34.884 grams of carbon emissions and mushrooms which only produce 30 grams of carbon emissions. Even two slices of toast only produce 124.64 grams of carbon emissions. Sadly bacon produces 987.5 grams of carbon emissions and pork produces roughly 2873 grams of carbon emissions. Based on an average sized English breakfast.
So if you enjoy eating a traditional cooked breakfast, prepare a cooked breakfast with cooked potatoes, beans, bread, eggs, cooked tomatoes and mushrooms and substitute bacon and pork for spinach, tofu or an eco friendly vegetarian bacon substitute. Or if you can’t fathom preparing a cooked breakfast without bacon and pork, you might want to limit your cooked breakfasts to once a week or once per month in order to do your part to protect the environment.
Roasts are typically not an environmentally friendly option:
If you enjoy sitting down to a Sunday roast each week, you may want to make a few alterations to your go to roast meal. As a typical roast meal which serves four individuals is responsible for producing around 28014 grams of carbon emissions. Which parts of a roast are the main culprits for producing carbon emissions? Beef produces 26573 grams of carbon dioxide, while milk produces 203.98 grams of carbon dioxide and eggs produce 271.35 grams of carbon emissions. So if you really care about the environment, it’s a great idea to cut down on the number of roasts which you prepare at home.
Try cooking more vegetarian dishes at home:
As meat is the number one culprit for creating carbon emissions, it’s a great idea to try and schedule more vegetarian dishes into your weekly menu. For example you may want to create a vegetarian stir fry once a week which features vegetables such as potatoes, carrots, broccoli, corn and cabbage. All of which produce few carbon emissions. It’s also a great idea to prepare salads on a regular basis from locally produced vegetables.
Were you surprised by the information which is listed above? If you’re shocked at the carbon emissions created by home cooking, it’s well worth making the effort to change some of your cooking habits and ingredients.
