Simple Step #5: Consider a Meatless Day

In the world of wellness, there are myriad opinions on the virtues and vices of animal protein and meat's role in a healthy diet. There are vegans and raw food advocates, the extreme all protein diets, those who abstain from meat for ethical and/or environmental reasons, and everything in between. Rather than getting into all those ideologies, I will simply acknowledge that the majority of us eat meat and could possibly do so with more awareness on how it impacts so many things.

For starters, our meat intake probably involves more red meat than it should (meaning lots of cholesterol and potentially artery-clogging saturated fats). We also tend to eat meat before other items in a meal, meaning we may get full on that rib eye while the broccoli on the plate remains uneaten and our vegetable intake remains low. And finally, the meat we do eat can be cooked in a variety of ways that can drastically alter its nutritional value; deep-fried anything becomes toxic to the body, batter coatings can take a sound choice and make it disaster, and sauces and marinades can be full of sugars and sodium.

So if you take meat out of your meals, what do you have left? Carbohydrates and fats. Are those in the form of processed grains and breads,refined sugars, and harmful fats? Or do you get the amount of fruits and vegetables that you need? When you take meat out of your meal, it easy to assess your carbs. That alone is worth doing on occasion, as so few of us eat enough fruits and veggies. Going to the other extreme and just eating carbs isn't the best option either (especially processed carbs).

As for the toll that meat takes on the environment, I found some sobering information. Americans eat an average of half a pound of meat a day. It takes about 4.8 pounds of grain, fed to cattle, to produce a single pound of beef. In the underdeveloped countries of the world, most people consume grain directly and certainly don't have enough to eat. It's a simple logic leap to see that eating great amounts of beef can contribute, indirectly, to world hunger. In his book, Diet for a Small Planet, author Francis Moore Lappe states, "Imagine a room filled with 45-60 people with empty bowls in front of them. For the 'feed cost' (meaning grain used to raise the beef) of your steak, each of their bowls could be filled with a full cup of cooked grain cereals." Meat production also generates more than 1.4 billion tons of animal waste, as reported by the Environmental Protection Agency, polluting American waterways more than all other industrial sources combined. Also, more than one third of all raw materials and fossil fuel consumption in the U.S. are used in animal production. Chicken and fish take a much lower toll on the planet and are lower in saturated fats, but eating beef sparingly is a personal choice.

I have had a high animal-protein diet for a long time and didn't give it much thought until I made a close friend who is a vegetarian. I started to read up on it and found there are tons of different reasons why people choose to go meatless. As I looked into recipes, I decided to eat vegetarian whenever I went anywhere with my friend. It was a respect thing at first, then I got thinking there are some other sound reasons to take a break from meat periodically. Give it some thought. Imaging the profound impact it would have on our health AND the environment if we all took one day a week and abstained from eating meat. Consider it!