Tip #5: Eat your vegetables. Save some moolah (and Ma Earth) by switching out meat for veggies at least one day a week.
Don’t let them sense your fear.Jeremy E.W. Fredericksen via Creative CommonsIt’s tried and true advice, from the USDA to First Lady Michelle Obama to your mom: Eat more veggies. Considering 78 percent of Americans aren’t eating enough fruits and veggies, it sounds like someone isn’t listening. Instead, Americans are chomping away at a record 222 pounds of meat a year (as of 2003). That’s 45 percent more meat a day than the USDA thinks is a very good idea.
Does going veg still have you quaking? Cutting a little meat out of your diet doesn’t have to be scary. You don’t have to go whole hog to have a healthy impact. (But if you do, you might even like it.)
Consider that eating less meat can:
- reduce the vast amounts of greenhouse gases and oil [PDF] associated with putting food on your plate
- cut the quantity of water used and pollution produced [PDF] from raising livestock
- reduce your risk of cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity related to high consumption of meat
Did we mention meat is more expensive than alternatives such as legumes and beans, which you can buy in bulk and store practically forever?
Try starting with one of these tasty recipes — or our fave, “Addictive Sweet Potato Burritos” — and make this a weekly ritual for you and your family. Maybe call it … Meatless Monday.
Missed the boat on Grist’s attitude toward Earth Day?
Didn’t see Tip #1? Or Tip #2? Or Tip #3? Or Tip #4?
