MEATLESS MONDAY as Easy as 1, 2, 3!

You won’t have a case of the Mondays anymore!!!

Source: http://thinkprogress.org/

I’ve said this before, and now it’s in writing: The creator of MEATLESS MONDAY is a GENIUS!

If you don’t know about this public health campaign, I’m going to introduce you to all the reasons you should get to know it! Starting today, and continuing for the next few Mondays, I’m going to walk you through the benefits of going meat-free one day a week and how simple it can be for you and your family.

Let’s get started!

The Western diet (what we eat here in America) overemphasizes the importance of meat. Excess protein, saturated fat, trans fats, and sugar are nutrients that are linked to chronic diseases that happen to be the top killers in the United States (think: heart disease, cancer, diabetes, obesity, stroke, etc.). If we all cut down our meat consumption and treat meat like a side dish most nights, we would all feel better, lose some extra lbs, and perhaps, even, save our lives. 

With that said, the MEATLESS MONDAY campaign promotes cutting out all meat products from our lives one day a week! That’s it: ONE DAY! You can do it!

Here’s how going meatless can help YOU:

• Curb obesity. Consuming less saturated fat while boosting fiber, vitamins, and minerals can lower your body mass index and weight dramatically. Start with one day a week and see how your body changes!

• Live Longer. Another study published this year in the Journal of the American Medical Association linked vegetarian diets to lower mortality¹, although it’s still unclear why. Adopt Meatless Monday this fall and add years onto your life!

• Fight chronic diseases. If I learned one thing from the Plant-Based Nutrition course from eCornell and the T. Colin Campbell Foundation, it’s that those who follow a whole-foods plant-based diet can reverse or almost completely prevent top killers in the U.S. (Including heart disease, cancer, stroke, and diabetes)². Imagine being a diabetic for 15 years, resolving to change your diet, and then become free of injecting insulin several times a day?!? Yes, it’s happened…more than a couple of times!

• Help the Environment. What’s a carbon footprint? It’s the amount of greenhouse gases released based on your actions. Driving your car and eating meat both cause huge emissions of greenhouse gases, contributing to the climate change effects best known as global warming. Abstaining from meat one day a week can help slow these effects. You’ll also minimize water usage. According to meatlessmonday.com, it takes 1,800-2,500 gallons of water to create a single pound of beef…producing vegetables takes far less (Ex: 220 gallons of water per pound of soy tofu in California).

So if feeling better, living longer, and helping the environment sound like worthy causes to you, sign up here to join the Meatless Monday movement! And stay tuned in every Monday to find out more tips about going meatless…recipes, a months worth of menu options, and cool research are coming your way! Sign up on my homepage so you don’t miss a thing!

Sources:

1: http://archinte.jamanetwork.com/article.aspx?articleid=1710093

2: http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/lcod.htm