Meatless Monday

Every Monday we will be adding super tasty meatless meals, snacks, treats and recipes that you can try and share with your friends and family!

Why go meatless?

By going meatless once a week you not only reduce your risk of cardio vascular disease, diabetes and obesity but you will also be reducing your carbon foot print.

Meatless and Your Health:
Studies have shown that eating a diet rich in fruits and veggies can lower your risk of heart disease and stroke by 5%.

Eating a diet with 2.5 more whole grains a day has been shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease by 21%.

Diets that are low in processed meats and high in plant based foods, can reduce your risk of type II Diabetes.  Eating a plant based diet can also decrease your calorie consumption, which helps you maintain a healthy weight, which is a key component to preventing and treating diabetes.

Plant based diets are higher in fiber (which is not found in animal products). Fiber contribute to fullness, which results in lower calorie intake and less overeating.

Going meatless encourages consumption of other plant based sources of protein like beans and peas. Beans and peas are associated with a lower intakes of saturated and total fat.  Beans and peas, also, are higher in fiber, protein, folate, zinc, iron, and magnesium.

Meatless and Your Wallet:
By reducing your risk of stroke, diabetes and heart disease you are also reducing your healthcare cost.  In 2008 heart disease, stroke and diabetes made up 75% of the 2 trillion dollars spent on medical care in this country.

You can save on your weekly budget by going meatless once a week.
Meat tends to be more expensive, in part because it requires more of an expense, such as feed and transportation.

Meatless and the Environment:
One of the greatest reasons we have changed to one meatless meal per week is the implications that it has on our environment.

It takes 1,850 gallons of water to raise 1 lb of beef and it only takes 39 gallons of water to grow 1 lb of veggies .... WOW!
Studies show that a vegetarian diet could reduce water consumption by 58% per person.

Meat production produces significantly more greenhouse gases veggies, including carbon monoxide, Methane and Nitrous Oxide (3 min sources of greenhouse gases).

By going meatless once a week you will also reduce your dependance on fuel. It takes 25 kilocalories of fossil fuel to produce 1 kilocalorie of a meat based protein, compared to 2.2 kilocalories of fossil fuel to produce 1 kilocalorie of a grain based rotten. Studies show that if we used the high level of grain produced and used to feed livestock, to feed people following a vegetarian diet , it would be enough to feed about 840 million people.

Ok ... Ok
Am I suggesting that you, your family and your little people become a full vegetarian or vegan?

No ...

If you feel so strongly about the issue that you want to become a vegetarian .... I am jealous and I say go for it!!

What I am suggesting here is that we all start small and do our part one day at a time ...

Cutting meat out of our diet one day a week is one small step that we can take in the direction towards making our family, our community and our planet healthier!!