Meatless Monday

Meatless Monday is a non-profit health initiative that encourages people around the world to go meat free one day a week for their health and the health of the planet! It encourages skipping all meat and cheese products for the day! It has become a quickly growing movement with over 50% of Americans polled having heard of it! It is a healthy diet habit to follow weekly!

Some facts you may not know about Meatless Monday:

• It was actually first adopted during WW1, when the government encouraged people to save staples by enacting Meatless Monday and Wheat-less Wednesday. The campaign continued during WW2 also.

• It was recreated in 2003, as a public health awareness program run with Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health's Center for a Livable Future. Its goal was to reduce dietary saturated fats and lower the risk of preventable diseases and bring awareness of the impact of our food choices on the environment.

• Americans eat more meat than Europeans, or people in developing countries!

• Going meat free, can reduce your carbon footprint and conserve fresh water and fossil fuel.

• Lamb and Beef generate 13 times more emissions than vegetable proteins like beans, lentils or tofu!

• One less burger a week for one year has the same climate impact as taking your car off the road for 320 miles, or line-drying your clothes 50% of the time.

• If each person in America were to go meat free and cheese-less on Monday, it would be like taking 7.6 million cars off the road!

• Meat free choices of protein include beans, legumes, eggs, nuts, and seeds.

Vegan Veggie Bean Soup

Some meal planning ideas for Meatless Monday would include:

• Make a big pot of any bean and veggie soup

• Make a big pot of chili using a variety of beans with your favorite chili recipe, just leaving the meat out

• Make bean burritos with tons of fresh veggies to layer on

• Peanut butter sandwiches are great lunch ideas

• Make whole grain salads like quinoa and fill them with fresh veggies and beans

There are many delicious recipes that are vegetarian, vegan, or just use your favorite meat recipes and substitute beans for the meat. You can also choose to purchase any of the vegan meat type products. There are so many wonderful new salad, veggie, bean, whole grain combinations that you can try! You will never miss meat! In fact, you might just find yourself looking forward to the lifestyle solution of Meatless Mondays to help counteract that Weekend Overeating that seems to pull you down!

Additional Info. on Meatless Monday

Please check out the Meatless Monday website for additional information and lots of meatless recipes: http://www.meatlessmonday.com