As per a new study conducted in the US, led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health and Brigham and Women's Hospital, healthier plant-based dietary habits were associated with better environmental health, whereas less healthy plant-based dietary patterns, which are higher in foods like refined grains and sugar-sweetened beverages, required more cropland and fertiliser.

"The differences between plant-based diets was surprising because they're often portrayed as universally healthy and good for the environment, but it's more nuanced than that," said Aviva Musicus, postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Nutrition at Harvard Chan School and corresponding author of the study. "To be clear, we're not asserting that less healthy plant-based diets are worse for the environment than animal-based diets. However, our findings show that plant-based diets can have different health and environmental impacts."