Savor the Flavor-Meatless Mondays

If I told you that you could make a change that would improve your health, improve the health of your community, spice up your kitchen, and also be easy, would you do it? A new public health movement is afoot. It is called Meatless Mondays.

Why should I go meatless one day a week?
Besides the fact that creating meat free recipes is easy, fun, and delicious…

Going meatless one day a week is great for your personal physical health and the health of your family. According to John’s Hopkins, many preventable diseases such as cancer, obesity, heart attacks, and strokes are linked to diets high in meat content. Reducing your meat consumption by even a small amount, a mere one day per week, can reduce the likelihood that you will experience these chronic health conditions.

Eating less meat one day a week is also a great way to help the environment. Getting meat to market generates large amounts of fossil fuel use, water waste, and manure.

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/why-meatless/

Isn’t eating meatless boring?

Eating a meat free diet one day a week does not have to be boring. When I signed on to go meatless one day a week, I had this sort of nightmare that I would eat iceberg lettuce salads and squishy tofu one day a week. To the contrary, I found the process of finding meatless recipes fascinating. Many other counties rely on meat far less than our culture. Going meatless allowed me to explore recipes from around the world. Many of these recipes were amazing.

Who is supporting this movement?

The Meatless Mondays Movement is supported by numerous organizations. Here is a list of a few of the organizations/people that have recognized the health benefits of Meatless Mondays. The list is pretty incredible.

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/whos-going-meatless/

Isn’t going meatless once a week hard?

Going meatless is extremely easy. Almost all of my favorite recipes have easy meat free alterations. I want to make going meatless easy for you. So, I am attaching a few of my favorite recipes to get you started including: sundried tomato pesto, tortilla soup, stuffed peppers and a resource for cooking meatless with kids. Try it one day a week. It is easy and fun.

Good luck and good eating.

For your eating pleasure:

Meatless recipes:

http://www.thekidscookmonday.org/category/recipe/

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/giada-de-laurentiis/penne-with-sun-dried-tomato-pesto-recipe/index.html

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/tortilla-soup/detail.aspx

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/stuffed-peppers-my-way/detail.aspx

http://www.amazon.com/Global-Vegetarian-Cooking-Recipes-Around/dp/1566563828

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/category/dinner/

http://freelancemuses.blogspot.com/ 

History of the movement:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meatless_Monday

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129025298


-Melissa A. Lemke, MA, Research Specialist, Zilber School of Public Health