In a paper published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems, Dr. Chris Macdonald explored the best sources of protein currently available.

To answer the question, Macdonald had to build a new holistic scoring system that combines measures of environmental impact, health, affordability and availability into a single framework.

Applying the scoring system to 20 commonly consumed protein-rich foods, the analysis found a striking pattern: every product in the highest-scoring quintile was plant-based, while every product in the lowest-scoring quintile was animal-based. Tofu ranked first overall, while cheddar cheese ranked last.

The paper argues that many existing food rating systems focus on only one aspect of a product. While useful, these single-dimension labels can obscure important trade-offs and make it difficult to compare foods comprehensively.

TOFU DOMINATION

Link to open access article https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/sustainable-food-systems/articles/10.3389/fsufs.2026.1677796/full

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[–] 59 points 1 week ago (17 children)

I’m here for tofu recipes pls

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  • [–] 14 points 1 week ago

    My personal favourite right now is:

    • A pack of firm tofu (~200g drained) cut into comfortable bite sizes
    • 2 tablespoons of soy
    • 0,5 - 1 inch of grated ginger
    • half a green onion chopped

    Add together in a bowl, mix and serve.

    It's a super quick side that goes well with nearly any of my regular dishes, and I eat it several times a week.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago
    • 1-2 packs of plain tofu, drained, cubed (about 200-400g)
    • add to a pan and fry it a little until it shrinks in size and gets a little golden from all sides
    • add soy sauce until it's all coated and let it simmer and absorb the soy sauce a little
    • add a sweetener of your choice (agave syrup is the one I use), a good squeeze from the bottle is good
    • paprika powder
    • maybe MSG if you like the taste
    • salt a little if you don't like MSG
    • serve :)
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  • [–] 9 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

    Magic Tofu

    Per pound or 454g of extra-firm tofu:

    • Break the tofu block apart by hands in a bowl, make pieces of 2cm/1'' large
    • Add 1 table spoon of preferred oil (nut, vegetable oils)
    • Add 1 table spoon of cider vinegar
    • Add 1 table spoon of soy sauce
    • Add 1 table spoon of sugar (best source are honey, agave or maple syrup)
    • (Optional) Add 1-2 table spoons of preferred spicy sauce (I use sambal oelek or thai red curry paste)
    • Mix
    • Add 30 g of nutritional yeast
    • Mix
    • (Optional) Add more nutritional yeast for flavor (another 15 g should do), mix again
    • Put on a baking tray, preferably with a parchment baking sheet to cover it, and spread the tofu apart
    • Bake for 25 minutes at 375°F or 190°C in the oven

    Enjoy on everything! I add it on top of pizzas, in wraps, in a plate with vegetables and rice...

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    [–] 25 points 1 week ago (12 children)

    It seems that the biggest impact you can have with a diet change is to just stop eating beef.

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  • [–] 17 points 1 week ago* (7 children)

    Beef is only part of the problem, it's rather bad but all animal products are super high emitters

    If we are concerned about the ethical side of things, swapping to other meats increases the number of animals slaughtered due to lower slaughter weights

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  • [–] 11 points 1 week ago* (5 children)

    Yeah, but talking about beef is more about it being a good first step for people to take. Removing one thing from your diet that can easily be replaced, makes it easier for people to start their journey.

    Also, ethics is weird to bring and discuss in this issue, because... "What's worse"?

    50 male chicks fed to the grinder alive at three days old, plus their 50 female cousins living in hell for 4 months until being asphyxiated alive, for meat,

    or

    four cows being chain-machine-raped, made pregnant, and having their children immediately taken away from them repeatedly, in order to keep the cows producing milk, unmoving and sick, throughout their 5 year life until slaughter?

    It's all a criminal tragedy. I don't think it makes sense to compare them, comparison will never make sense, it's all arbitrary.

    What is not arbitrary, are the methods to wean people off of the habits that feed those industries, and the methods to reduce those industries' political power.

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  • [–] 10 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    I am doubtful advocating for switching one type of meat for another types of meat will lead towards people reducing their meat consumption in the end. I see it brought up way more often as an excuse to not reduce meat consumption

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  • [–] 7 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    This is anecdotal of course, but that was absolutely my journey.

    I went from a meat heavy diet to not eating meat the majority of the days, and still trying to gradually lower it further.

    For some people (like me) the barrier to lowering their meat consumption has more to do with having to learn a whole new paradigm of cooking, than being super invested in meat itself.

    In case like mine it really helps to do the changes little steps at a time, where you make just one relatively small change at a time, learn how to cook with that change in mind, and then move onto the next relatively small change. It allows me some time to learn to cook with the new ingredients/new allocation of ingredients, and make food I actually want to eat in the long run, so it becomes way easier to keep it up.

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    [–] 25 points 1 week ago (7 children)

    I'm a bit surprised that tofu is ahead of beans, especially in the Planet Score, since it's kind of just further processed beans.

    My best guess is that the non-determinate "beans" are an average or something like kidney beans, whereas tofu is specifically soy beans.
    And well, Wikipedia tells me that soy beans kick ass:

    Cultivation of soybeans has one of the lowest needs for land use (1.3 m² / 1000 kcal) and emits some of the lowest amounts of greenhouse gas emissions per gram of edible protein of any food (1.6 kg CO2 / 100 g protein).

    Would probably need to e-mail them to ask for the actual data... 🥴

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  • [–] 9 points 1 week ago (6 children)

    Beans are a less complete protein than soy, so you need to either eat a lot more or supplement with grain or dairy.

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  • [–] 12 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    The focus on complete protein is not useful in 99.9% of cases. You do not need to eat all amino acids in the same meal. As long as you get it at some point in the day, it's fine. The main person who popularized the idea has actually said they regret doing so

    "In 1971 I stressed protein complementarity because I assumed that the only way to get enough protein ... was to create a protein as usable by the body as animal protein. In combating the myth that meat is the only way to get high-quality protein, I reinforced another myth. I gave the impression that in order to get enough protein without meat, considerable care was needed in choosing foods. Actually, it is much easier than I thought.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protein_combining#Criticism

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  • [–] 18 points 1 week ago (13 children)

    What's with the protein obsession? Eat more fiber, that is what almost everyone is lacking.

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    [–] 14 points 1 week ago (1 child)

    Nobody commenting on the fact that this good scientist nearly shares a name with the largest fast food chain on the planet on the planet. I like to think this Dr. Chris Macdonald is rebelling against their father, Ronald.

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  • [–] 13 points 1 week ago* (2 children)

    Not sure how they score, but chickpeas are pretty great too. Soak'em, mash'em, stick 'em in a falafel.

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    [–] 6 points 1 week ago (18 children)

    Too bad there isn't a good source of tofu in most grocer markets. Soy is one of the most suspect crops,with pesticides and such to start, and there just aren't many buying options, and they are all expensive-er than they should be.

    A pound is like a couple of bucks, but a pound isn't that much really. Making your own isn't really practicable, I saw a video on how they make it traditionally in East Asia and it's a big thing with many steps.

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  • [–] 18 points 1 week ago (13 children)

    90%+ of soya grown is used for animal feed. Funny how those of us that eat a lot of tofu manage to find it cheap very easily, and I'm still finding new types of Tofu 35 years later... I'm in the UK, but surely wherever you are can't be that far behind the rest of the world?

    We get tofu blocks in various forms from all supermarkets (Aldi, Lidl, Asda, Tesco... etc.) for about £1 per block. Equivalent meat costs probably £3-£5. We sometimes get fresh (unpackaged) and deep fried tofu from our local Asian cash-and-carry, plus various tinned, vac-packed and jarred varieties. Occasionally we get "expensive" tinned braised tofu from local wholefood shops as a treat. Occasionally we get a Chinese take-away - several of our local ones do Tofu and Seitan. Our favourite one does their vegan dishes £1-£3 cheaper than the non-vegan options.

    We don't buy frozen ready meals, but vegan ones do exist. We like cooking, and cook a lot from scratch, but there are lots of jarred sauces and sachets you can get that are vegan - it's completely possible to make a quick meal with a jar of pasta sauce, a tub of marinated tofu chunks and frozen veg, and it would still be cheaper than using frozen chicken chunks instead.

    It's there if you go looking for it. A vegan diet is pretty cheap in reality - about 30% cheaper the way we do it, and we're not particularly frugal about it, nor do we put in much effort to achieve it. We buy the things we like where we know we can get them, probably just like you do.

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  • [–] 6 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    I've made my own tofu and it is not a big thing with many steps. Soak beans overnight, blend beans in blender, cook resulting slurry, strain, add coagulant, place in container and apply weight.

    It's about the same amount of work as baking bread. However it is not cheaper than buying tofu from the store unless you can find very cheap soybeans.

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    [–] 5 points 1 week ago* (8 children)

    I like tofu. My wife eats it almost daily, I eat it occasionally (typically, I make mabodofu). My biggest issue is that it's fragile and doesn't have a texture akin to meat. Before anyone recommends seitan, I like that but can't have gluten or wheat anymore. Any suggestions?

    I live in Japan, so we have no shortage of types of tofu, but even our firmest doesn't do it for me.

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  • [–] 8 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    Press your tofu for 2-4 hours, wrapped in paper towels. You wanna get it real dry. Microwave it for like 1-2 minutes. Get it REALLY dry. Once all that water is out, you wanna rehydrate it with some sauce + seasonings, basically like a marinade. Once it’s soaked up the goodness, air fry it (preferably) or pan fry it. Should end up with a texture almost similar to chicken. It’s still gonna be softer than real meat, but getting it just absurdly dry first is the first step to getting it close

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  • [–] 5 points 1 week ago (4 children)

    Ultimately, beyond the spreadsheets and scores lies a fundamental reckoning: our protein choice is a referendum on the compassion we are willing to show to animals, to the planet and to future generations.

    Clearly no bias at all!

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    [–] 4 points 1 week ago (2 children)

    Misread the title and read the article hoping to learn more about this "hostile" scoring system, only to be highly disappointed. lol

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