Less meat on your plates: Lower extinction rates!

A personal change that I considered changing was to eat less meat in order to live more sustainably. Prior to this attempt of this lifestyle change, I never realized how much meat I incorporated with my diet for a protein source (chicken) and how much red meat (steak) I eat weekly. So, for the past week, I decided to cut out meat from my diet, and instead of seeking poultry for protein, I substituted that source of protein with pinto beans and black beans. I’ll be honest and say that I am not a huge “bean person.” This substitution was probably the most difficult aspect that I had to adapt to, because I never liked them in my childhood because of the texture of the beans. Meat generation is a standout amongst the most ecologically dangerous enterprises on the planet, in charge of huge measures of water use, ozone harming substance outflows, pollution and territory annihilation. You have three possibilities daily to enhance the strength of the planet, by diminishing your meat utilization you can decrease your ecological impression.

Eating privately sourced products of the soil additionally brings down the measure of fossil fuels used to transport nourishment over long distances. Which leads into what I want to continue to make different changes in order to enhance the way of living more sustainably. I want to try next to change where I get my fruits and vegetables; attain produce locally.  Eating less meat, or just cutting it out like I did, will help with your health and energy levels tremendously! While I just cut off meat completely last week and being an active meat eater prior, I struggled with not thinking about eating meat. I would have a tendency to constantly have a craving for meat, but consciously knew I couldn’t because it would mess up my recording of how the week of not eating meat felt like. So for me, as you can tell it was pretty hard. Like I said before, looking to beans and nuts for protein solely was a huge change for me and by the end of the week, I did get used to the texture and taste better. An unanticipated benefit was that the change in diet made me feel more full for a longer period of time than did certain meats (nutrient-dense foods). An unanticipated challenge during this diet would have probably have been fighting the impulses to get meat during the duration of the week.

In my experience, I would like to stick to this change in moderation because it did make me feel good. I do not think that I will be able to cancel out meat completely so drastically, but I do think that gradually I will be able to reach that point by controlling portion size to having like say 4oz of meat a day, and then gradually leading to weekly, monthly, etc. My advise to others contemplating a similar change, is that you can do it! And the fact that this simple change can do so much good to yourself and the Earth just make it all much the better! Also, if there is anyone like me, that the best way to do this is eat meat in moderation and gradually diminish in the timing you feel comfortable with.

 

2 thoughts on “Less meat on your plates: Lower extinction rates!

  1. I have thought about doing something like this as well! I never realized until about a year ago that meat production is so bad for the environment. When I did the Carbon Footprint homework, I changed the my eating habits from eating meat a couple times a week to going vegetarian and my carbon footprint greatly reduced. I am not a huge meat eater anyways, but I do enjoy the occasional burger, turkey sandwich, or chicken in my salad or pasta. But doing without that is much better for me and the environment, so why not give it a try? And I love beans.

  2. Kudos to the lifestyle change, Rikki! There are a ton of resources for recipes on the internet. Here`s one by the Physician`s Committee for Responsible Medicine: http://www.pcrm.org/health/diets/recipes
    Type in “whole food plant based” into your search engine for even more healthy, sustainable, and delicious recipes!

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