Has that long holiday weekend of grillin' and chillin' left you in a carnivorous coma? Feeling kinda sluggish after piling your plate sky high with the obligatory 4th of July burgers, hotdogs, potatoes, and pie?
The fastest way to shrink that post-barbecue belly this Monday is to let your body lighten up: step away from the saturated fats in meat and get your week off to a heart-healthy start with fruits, veggies, grains and legumes. And because livestock production creates more greenhouse gases than transportation, choosing beans or beets over meat one day a week helps to lighten your carbon footprint, too.
You'll be in good company with millions of other folks who've joined the Meatless Monday movement and its British cousin, which share two simple goals: healthier people and a healthier planet. This not your father's--or your grandfather's--Meatless Monday campaigns, which flourished during World Wars I and II.
Back then, it was all about scarcity. Things like fuel, meat, sugar, milk, and cheese were in short supply and Americans were called on to sacrifice for the sake of the war effort. Now, we're going meatless on Mondays for our own sake. Decades of cheap gas and bargain beef have created a surplus of ill health and greenhouse gas emissions, two things we really can't afford.
Today's Meatless Monday--a non-profit initiative run in collaboration with the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future at the Bloomberg School of Public Health--is not about rationing. It's about living rationally; i.e., eating more healthfully. Skipping meat even just once a week can help you avoid a wide range of illnesses, including cancer, heart disease, and diabetes.
Not sure where to begin? You'll find all kinds of tantalizing recipes on the Meatless Monday website, and, starting this Monday, Huffington Post will be featuring recipes from Ellen Kanner,
aka the Edgy Veggie. You'll find plenty of pro-produce posts on the Green page from other bloggers as well (myself included).
Some of us are vegetarians or vegans, but others, like me, eat the occasional grass-fed burger or pasture-raised pork. We encourage meat-free meals because it's not only healthy and humane, but because getting your calories from plant-based foods grown by the sun is such an easy way to support renewable energy. Calories, after all, are just another form of fuel.
So get your week off to a sunny start and make Monday your day to lighten up. After that, who knows? You might find meat-free eating so life-affirming that you'll find yourself worshipping seitan on Sunday. I'm thinking about launching Tatsoi Tuesday, myself.
Read Ellen Kanner's column with a recipe for Tunisian Roasted Vegetables
Follow Kerry Trueman on Twitter: www.twitter.com/kerrytrueman
Meatless Monday - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Kathy Freston: Meatless Mondays
Eat Healthy Monday - Meatless Monday for Earth Day | Sustainable Table
Go Meatless On Monday: Even Just One Day a Week Makes a Difference ...
IT IS VERY SUSPICION WHEN DIET IS MIXED WITH GLOBAL WARMING.
IN MY OPINION IN THIS CASE PERSON DO NOT KNOW AS SCIENCE OF DIET, AS SCIENCE OF GLOBAL WARMING.
WE MUST EAT WHAT IS HEALTHY FOR US, NOT FOR EARTH.
IN GLOBAL WARMING PROPERTIES OF WATER ARE MORE IMPORTANT, THAN PROPERTIES OF GHG.
My meatless day is Friday.
Which is why as a confirmed omnivore I don't have a problem with encouraging people to abstain from processed meats and cook a good vegetarian meal at least once a week.
But I hope this isn't used as yet another forum for the zealot vegetarians to tell us, yet again, how eating meat -- no matter how it's raised and butchered -- is immoral, anti-eco and bound to make us die hideous deaths.
Vegetarians, however, SHOULD be zealous. In addition to the ethical considerations, increased vegetarian diets would help solve a multitude of problems now facing our little planet.
Regardless, omnivores love to try to tell me my diet must be deficient in something and that humans were meant to eat meat, etc... The truth is, I feel great about my diet. I'm healthy (ask my Doctors and see my irrefutable stats). I wasn't healthy when I ate meat. I have a cleaner conscience than when I ate meat. Those are the only arguments I need. I believe more in the lead by example philosophy.
http://www.facebook.com/ext/share.php?sid=116770602287&h=GOuyO&u=ow4hS&ref=mf
Here is what my research shows: I know of no studies showing grass fed meats are damaging to one's health - they are all based on grain fed meat. The nutritional and lipid profiles of grass vs grain fed meat are radically different. The large methane burps from cattle are based on grain feeding. New studies (published on HuffPo) show when you switch them to grass, burping is markedly reduced. As it now stands, worldwide, termites arguably produce more grams of methane than livestock. Per pound of protein, grass-fed buffalo appears to use less environmental resources than annual unsustainable monocrops such as grains or beans.
Because I care about the environment, I do not eat any food containing more than one ingredient, or that requires a plow to produce it, or which cannot be digested without prior human processing.
For background, consult the hundreds of references in "The Vegetarian Myth" by Lierre Keith, "Against the Grain" by Richard Manning, "The Whole Soy Story" by Kaayla Daniel, "Plows, Plagues and Petroleum" by William Ruddiman, and "the Original Diet - The Omnivore's Solution", by me. Ask your librarian for copies.
Roy Mankovitz, Director
http://www.MontecitoWellness.com
FIFY.
Incidentally, the "prior human processing" you speak of was invented thousands of years before recorded history. There are many ways of accomplishing this without degradation of the environment.
Regarding your comment on our evolutionary history, "thousands of years before recorded history" is essentially one minute ago on the hominid timeline. The impact of food processing I am referring to has nothing to do with the environment. It has to do with the health of those eating these foods.
All of this and more can be found in the cited references.
Not eating meat one day a week is a great way to start. People should make an effort to eat REALLY GOOD vegetarian meals on Mondays, otherwise they will feel deprived.
Vegetarian diets are delicious! There will be no sacrifice involved!
It would be useful for us and hopefully inspiring for the carnivores.