Meat still has an important place in our diet – we just need to gradually reduce the amount we eat

Sustainable food, which is kinder for the planet and good for our health, needs to balance a range of factors, writes Janet Street-Porter

Meat and dairy substitutes can be more expensive than the real thing (PA)

Food and diet has become highly politicised, and daring to admit you still eat meat has become – in some company at least – akin to confessing you think bashing kittens should be an Olympic sport. Or smacking your children.

Meat has become weaponised – loaded with meaning, no longer an allowable sustenance, and eating it is seen by some vegans as the ultimate expression of belligerence and ignorance. An affront to the senses.

And vegans are winning the battle for our hearts and minds. Meat consumption is gradually coming down, along with that of dairy products. Butchers are going out of business with fake meat stores taking their place in trendy neighbourhoods in London and our major cities. There's no middle ground in this war on meat.

Farmers are furious, they feel victimised when they have to adhere to some of the strictest standards of animal husbandry in Europe. The vegan and vegetarian lobby are so organised, vociferous and busy trying to get 100 per cent of the population converted to their views, that anyone who enjoys meat once or twice a week is best advised to keep quiet about this sinful pleasure.

Earlier this year, British farmers launched a television campaign to promote the benefits of their meat and dairy products. The advertisements, (devised by the industry-funded, government-backed Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board) contained the following claim: “Red meat and dairy are a source of B12 and protein. B12 helps reduce tiredness and fatigue. Protein contributes to the maintenance of normal bones.” Hardly controversial stuff, and factually correct.

The farmers’ online campaign went further and pointed out that B12 “was not naturally present in the vegan diet”. You can imagine the furore that followed. There were 500 complaints to the Advertising Standards Authority, many of which focused on the adverts’ images of cattle grazing in fields. The complainants said this was misleading, asserting that most meat sold in the UK came from cattle which spends the majority of their lives indoors, with a detrimental impact on the environment.

There were numerous other examples of nitpicking from organisations like the Vegan Society, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (Peta) and Compassion in World Farming. But this week the ASA ruled that the ads were not misleading and can continue.

Were the complainants outraged because the farmers’ TV ad dared to describe their produce as "a food so natural it takes the rain from the sky and plants we humans cannot eat and turns it into something wonderful"? Fifty years ago, who would have thought that describing lamp chops or a pint of milk as "natural" would cause some folk to experience a meltdown and consider legal action.

In their ruling in favour of the farmers, the ASA say that – according to official data – the diet of British cattle and sheep mainly consists of grass. That pig food contains stuff which can’t be eaten by humans. That nine out of 10 farms allow their cattle to graze outside for part of the year, and most sheep are kept outdoors. As for B12, the ads did not claim this was essential for a healthy diet, so it is up to individuals to choose the form in which to consume it.

So what are the best food choices to ensure decent health and a long life? The British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) has been looking at an extensive range of diets and their impact on personal health and the environment. The BNF examined 29 scientific studies undertaken over the past ten years and concluded that Public Health England’s guidelines offered the best advice. PHE’s Eatwell guide includes some meat, eggs, dairy and fish. It recommends five portions of fruit and vegetables a day, over 30g of fibre daily and one portion of oily fish (and one non-oily fish) once a week.

The BNF say this diet is not only affordable, it’s also relatively easy to follow. Meat and animal-derived foods provide a considerable amount of the iron, vitamin A, calcium, iodine and riboflavin that are an essential part of a healthy diet. The BNF considers that environment concerns need to be balanced with the provision of essential nutrients.

With one in 10 teenage girls in the UK (the age group most likely to adopt a vegetarian diet and also likely to be highly concerned about the environment) are potentially suffering from anaemia and iron deficiency, so how they obtain these nutrients in their diet is a matter for concern.

Sustainable food, which is kinder for the planet and good for our health, needs to balance a range of factors. The BNF advocates gradually eating less meat, dairy products and fish in favour of more vegetables and pulses, shifting gradually to plant-based meat substitutes which have less salt and saturated fat.

At the moment, fewer than 1 per cent of the population are actually sticking to the Eatwell guidelines, which accounts for the huge rise in obesity through every age group, so moving on to the next level of less meat is a long way down the road. Instead we seemed to be being pushed into thinking the future must be vegan if we want to save the planet – without considering the health implications.

Instead of demonising meat and dairy products and promoting a pure vegan or vegetarian diet, campaigners like Peta need to adopt a more realistic approach to encourage us to gradually move in their direction. For people on low incomes, a vegan diet is not necessarily balanced, nutritious or sustaining. It can be boring and meat and dairy substitutes can be more expensive than the real thing.

I’ve not noticed many octogenarian villagers in those gorgeous Tuscan and Greek hill towns crying because they haven’t got access to oat-based milk, almond yoghurt or soya butter. Amazingly, they eat less meat because it’s considered a luxury. They eat cheese in moderation and make their meals from scratch using local vegetables. That’s my motto, plus venison and local game. If it’s free range and dead, someone might as well enjoy it.

Everything we eat should have had a decent life and be treated with respect. That doesn’t include oat milk.