Pardon the pun.

My friend Mary has a nutrition counseling business called Beyond Broccoli, and she forwarded along an email newsletter from the UK the other day that contained some fascinating stats — and food for thought. The title: The carbon cost of Christmas, from NUTRAingredients.com|europe.

Academics from the School of Chemical Engineering and Analytical Science at Manchester University investigated the carbon emissions that result from a traditional Christmas feast of roast turkey with stuffing, roast potatoes and vegetables, bread sauce, cranberry sauce and other trimmings. Drinks were excluded.

Their startling results show that one meal for eight generates the equivalent of 20kg of carbon dioxide emissions. When this is multiplied throughout the UK population (assuming a third of the population eats the traditional meal), the impact is a massive 51000 tonnes.

The main culprit is the turkey, which has a particularly large carbon footprint (60 per cent of the total) throughout its lifecycle.

The researchers looked at all stages of the supply chain, including raising the turkey. Indeed, all the turkeys to be eaten in the UK will have, between them, gobbled down some 12000 tonnes of wheat, 3000 tonnes of barley, 4000 tonnes of rape seeds and 800 tonnes of fish meal.

But it would be wholly unfair to place the bulk of the blame on turkeys (and leave vegetarians smugly tucking into their meat-free roasts).

"Vegetables contribute 10 per cent to the carbon footprint, preparation of the meal at home seven per cent, and the total transport accounts for 4.5 per cent," said Professor Azapagic.

The worst offender when it came to transportation, said the researchers, is the humble cranberry.

What's my point? Certainly not to discourage anyone from enjoying a holiday feast; merely to suggest that there's a carbon impact to virtually everything we do and everything we consume.

My holiday wish: that more and more folks will take a considered approach to reducing their carbon footprints. Non-judgemental articles like The carbon impact of Christmas will play a large role in spurring that thought process.

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