PopSci is spending September relearning how you can eat. As intuitive as our love of chowing down is, loads stands between us and optimal eating. This month, we’ll break down weight loss program myths, unlock delicious kitchen hacks, and explore our commonest misconceptions about our grub.

Whether you’re a vegetarian, vegan, pescatarian, flexitarian, so something completely different, you would possibly think loads about how the foods you eat alter the planet. But unlike other major activities linked to climate change, the reply isn’t at all times so clear-cut. Sustainability labels will be confusing, and there’s loads greater than just carbon emissions to account for on the subject of ensuring your food is an ethical win.

Still, there are a couple of surefire ways to dine well and still protect the planet.

1. Reconsider your relationship with protein 

Essentially the most obvious thing to do in case you care in regards to the planet (and your health) is to lower the quantity of beef, lamb, and goat meat you eat, says Sean Smuckler, associate professor and chair of Agriculture and Environment in Land and Food Systems on the University of British Columbia. So before you even dive off the ledge of going fully vegetarian or vegan, it’s essential to know which meat products are the worst climate contenders.

“The most important decision to make is just how much meat you ought to eat, and inside that, [choose] a meat that’s less climate impactful,” he says. 

Ruminants, that are the family of animals that contain cows, goats, and sheep, gather their food and nutrients by roughly fermenting it of their stomachs with special microbes. While that is a captivating process to contemplate biologically, their diets often end in high methane emissions. Poultry and pork, alternatively, have a reasonably high footprint in comparison with vegetables and dairy, but a significantly smaller one than beef.

Vegetable-based meat substitutes are another choice to contemplate, though their exact impacts are somewhat mysterious, Smuckler says. “It’s clear that their emissions profile is smaller than the meat they’re replacing, but by how much we don’t know,” he explains. (The jury continues to be out on their health impacts as well.) But one thing doctors know for certain is that a whole lot of people within the US and UK are already eating an excessive amount of protein—so cutting down on meat consumption only for health purposes is step. 

[Related: Post-pandemic seafood could be more sustainable]

Seafood is one other sticky issue within the protein department. Some varieties of small-schooling fish, like anchovies and herring, and farmed mollusks are generally considered sustainable; but health-food favorites like prawns can take as many as 2,650 gallons of fuel per ton to haul out of the ocean. “Foods which can be healthy are likely to be more sustainable, but there are exceptions,” says Michael Clark, a post-doc researcher at The Oxford Martin Program on the Way forward for Food.

2. Buy processed foods, but properly

Processed foods, which make up the majority of American people’s diets as of late, will be sticky, too. It’s already clear that certain kinds are detrimental to human health, and goods that contain palm and soy oils have “substantial” impacts on the planet. 

But in some cases, minimally processed foods might be a godsend for people who’re also frightened about how much food they throw out. There are serious ripple effects from sending food to landfills—somewhere between six and eight percent of greenhouse gas emissions might be eliminated by simply cutting down food waste. 

Recent research by Clark and others suggests that moving away from unhealthy food to healthier selections can have significant impacts on the environment. A giant a part of that switch could mean using minimally processed (frozen, chopped, or dried, for instance) fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and so forth. One recent study also showed that minimally processed vegatables and fruits are less prone to get tossed out—due to this fact limiting environmental degradation. 

The query to ask yourself, Oxford’s Marco Springmann told the BBC, is in case you would must use appliances at home to prep the food you’re buying, like cooking rice or freezing fruit for a smoothie. “In case you processed some food at home, the chances are high you expend more energy doing that, as the method isn’t as streamlined as a giant factory.”

Moral of the story here is that in case your version of a healthy weight loss program consists of fresh veggies and grains, but you’re frightened you won’t give you the chance to eat all of it before it goes bad, go together with pre-cooked quinoa or okra crisps. Perhaps step away from the super-processed stuff like chips and chicken nuggets, though. 

3. Get entangled with local food suppliers

An often-told parable of climate-friendly diets is to know where your food comes from. But determining where precisely the tomato in your cart was first planted will be even harder than interpreting the stickers and labels that find yourself on groceries. In case you’re extra keen to know the precise sources of your meals, Smuckler suggests getting invested in your local farming scene to learn if the growers are using organic or regenerative practices.

[Related: Rerouting billions in agriculture subsidies could boost global food security.]

The food system is incredibly nuanced: What could have a lighter greenhouse gas load, for instance, might require a lot of water to cultivate or manufacture. “The tradeoffs can turn out to be quite complicated, and it’s difficult for consumers,” Smuckler explains. “That’s why, for me, knowing the farm or the farmer and the way they produce the food makes an enormous difference.” Knowing the person making the stuff you’re buying is the best level of transparency you may get. 

In fact, not everyone has time to research all of the kale and lettuce growers of their region. But even trying a little bit bit, be it doing a Google seek for sustainable farms that use methods like carbon sequestration, permaculture, or Community Supported Agriculture before hitting the shops. You too can use your purchasing power to steer the system: Grocery stores and restaurants concentrate to what customers want, and pushing for reasonably priced, planet-friendly options will help in the long term.

“The most effective advice is to attempt to make the alternatives that indicate what your desire is,” Smuckler says. “If we’re putting the indications on the market, we’re moving the dial on the system.”