New Year’s Resolution #1: Meat Free Monday

What is your new year’s resolution? Here at I Love Cooking we shun fad diets, instead advocating an altogether more gentle approach. This week, we will be introducing simple ways to make your lifestyle healthier, by including easy meal options that can be thrown together after a hard day at the office or running around after kids. We simply want to feel better this January, and after a December filled with protein, we want to make Meat Free Monday a staple in our lives. To find out more, check out meatfreemondays.com

So, why should we eat less meat?

Help The Planet
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the livestock sector is “one of the top two or three most significant contributors to the most serious environmental problems, at every scale from local to global”. The FAO estimates that livestock production is responsible for 14.5 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, while other organisations have estimated it could be as much as 51 per cent.

Be Healthier
The World Cancer Research Fund recommends we “choose mostly plant foods, limit red meat and avoid processed meat”. In 2010, a study carried out by Oxford University’s department of public health found that eating meat no more than three times a week could prevent 31,000 deaths from heart disease, 9,000 deaths from cancer and 5,000 deaths from stroke, as well as save the NHS £1.2 billion in costs each year.

Save Those Pennies
The cost of meat has risen 10 per cent since 2007, yet most of the staples of a meat-free diet are comparatively cheaper: plant proteins such as dried beans or lentils typically cost less than the equivalent amount of animal protein. In fact, most of the world’s people eat a mostly meat-free diet made up of inexpensive commodities such as beans, rice and corn. Eat less meat + more veg = save money!

 

For more delicious vegetarian recipe ideas, check out our vegetarian collection.