The Baltimore City Public School System became the first district in the nation to adopt Meatless Mondays. Meatless Mondays is a non-profit initiative whose goal is to improve personal health and the health of the planet. On October 5, 2009 the school cafeteria workers began prepping their first vegetarian fare.
This is huge, considering we are talking about a major public school system. BCPS is paving the way for other large school systems in the country to get on the right track. In Baltimore, not only do kids have a chance to eat whole fresh produce, they can learn about plants and animals by visiting the system's 33-acre farm.
As the health care debate continues, the rising concern over childhood obesity and the environmental impact of factory farming adds another dimension. Movies like Food, Inc. are shedding light on the mysteries of the Standard American Diet. The connection between our food, our environment and our health are vital when considering, "what to eat?"
BCPS is following the lead of a growing number of people all over the country who are joining the Meatless Monday movement and are pledging to eat meat-free once a week. Meatless Mondays suggest that just by reducing animal protein in your diet, you could lessen your risk of heart disease, cancer, obesity and diabetes. Many people have found that reducing animal protein consumption can help with low energy and sugar cravings.
If you are interested in lowering your impact on the environment while investing in your health, try incorporating more vegetables into your meal. Vegetables are high in fiber and will make you feel full and satisfied. Beans, peas, lentils, nuts and seeds are also a great meat alternative. They are high in protein, iron and magnesium and contain little to no saturated fat.
You'll reduce your carbon footprint by cutting back on meat just once a week. According to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization, the meat industry generates nearly 1/5 of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions that are accelerating climate change worldwide. Our precious water resources are exhausted daily and the demand continues to grow. Approximately 1,800 to 2,500 gallons of water go into a single pound of beef. This total far surpasses the amount of water needed for vegetables and grains.
People are confused about how to start making improvements to their health, let alone make sizable changes to the environment. Start with what you put on your dinner plate. Start today. You don't have to become a vegetarian to make a difference. Michael Pollan recently stated on the Oprah show: "Even one meatless day a week -- a meatless Monday, which is what we do in my household -- if everybody in America did that, that would be the equivalent of taking 20 million mid-size sedans off the road."
What can you do? Call your local school system. Tell them that you want to instill healthy habits in your children with Meatless Mondays. Show them the model BCPS has created and let them know you want changes.
If every major school system in the country adopted Meatless Mondays, with the children enjoying local produce of a plant-based variety, the progress would be tremendous. If every family then extended that commitment to their dinner table, we could see the impact of a movement on our health, the health of our children and the environment. The possibilities are endless!
Joshua Rosenthal is the founder of the Institute for Integrative Nutrition, the largest nutrition school in the world. Visit the site for a free "14 Days to a Healthier You" coaching program.
Follow Joshua Rosenthal on Twitter: www.twitter.com/NutritionSchool
Jonathan Safran Foer: Quitting Meat: A Process Of Change
David Kirby: The Nutritional Superiority of Pasture Raised Animals
Anne Naylor: Who Or What Do You Trust?
Wayne Pacelle: Eating Animals: A Book to Digest
Meatless Monday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Local, vegetarian food comes to city schools -- baltimoresun.com
Kerry Trueman: Meet Meatless Monday
Children's Health And The Meat Industry
Meat Industry: Meatless Monday Threatens Our Way of Life
Everything You Always Wanted to Know about Vegetarianism but Were Afraid to Ask
Much institutional food (including school food) is made with canned veggies, which is about as nutritionally good for you as toilet paper. I'd like to hear about the details of what Baltimore is providing instead of burgers and hot dogs.
On a related note, Baltimore is one of the most problematic cities in the country, in terms of all the basic sociological stats. And right now, the mayor, Shiela Dixon, is under facing not one, but two, separate trials.
It seems to me they've got bigger tofu to fry.
Meatless Monday is a campaign of moderation. Cut meat just one day a week. We leave it up to the individual, or the school, or the town, or the company, or the club on how they want to implement the program to suit their indvidual needs. We merely ask that a meatless option be offered. It's a simple act that, over time, can improve your personal health and the health of the planet. Our intention is not to "save the planet" as one commentor noted...but merely to make people aware how easy it is to make tasty meatless meals, and to offer articles, tips and resources to help you go meatless one day a week
We thank innovators such as Joshua Rosenthal for helping us grow the movement!
Then instead of meatless monday's I'd be asking for mondays to be grass fed lamb. Because they just run around and eating grass and one doesn't have to destroy lots of natural habitat, kill more animals than meat eaters would ever eat per pound, such as mice and other underground creatures (somehow every vegetarian I know doesn't care how many animals are killed to create the grains they eat) as well as the natural predators that feed on them, as well as local flowers that grow in the fields, the bees that are around because of the flowers, the pesticides that *are not used* and don't go into the local rivers causing algae blooms in the oceans....
High protein flour can also be made into mock meat.( just to ecourage chlidren to eat vegetarian)
You can try out these protein dishes in a vegetarian restaurant when you visit some of those countries.
Nuts are a good source of protein, that is, if you are not allergic to it.
I count organic shops out because they are too pricy for the average working guy. People get turned off if you have a restaurant that serve the same kind of vegetables and nuts all year round. It drive you nuts!
Vegetarians eat a meatless or meat-free diet, but it is definitely not free of animal protein. A vegetarian is someone who eats plant and animal foods, namely dairy and/or eggs.
It would appear that the author of this article is really talking about "Vegan Mondays," where even vegetarians would need to modify their behavior to conform.
I also do not understand how Meatless Mondays will "save the planet". First, our planet is not in trouble, we are. It is quite arrogant to think our planet needs our help to “save it”, or that its very existence is somehow under our control. In our absence, nature has millions of years to cleanse herself of our legacy, regenerate, create many new species, and perhaps evolve an improved human model.
I avoid eating confined animal products or any annual monocrops such as corn, wheat, soy, or oats. I don't consider these foods to be ecologically sustainable, or ethical in the treatment of sentient beings.
Most vegetarians and vegans eat plant foods produced by agricultural machinery that kills and maims millions of ground-living animals in a very cruel fashion, and requires tons of toxic chemicals and fossil fuel that poison all of us.
An eating plan designed by nature (not humans) for our species can be found in "The Original Diet."
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com