Health-conscious Americans are adopting Meatless Monday into their lifestyles more and more these days. Other countries, mainly in Europe, have already learned that eating mostly meatless meals helps health and environmental issues. It’s no secret that eating meat has been linked to chronic diseases such as heart disease, diabetes, and other life-shortening maladies.
Pros and Cons of Meatless Meals
Some of these vegetarian diets are very restrictive, and others allow a great deal of flexibility. For example, vegans eat only fruits and vegetables and no dairy by-products or eggs. The more stringent you choose to become, the more difficult it becomes to find variety and get enough protein and maintain your health.
By including meatless meals in your weekly planning, you’ll cut calories and fat (incredibly saturated fats found in meat), cholesterol, and sodium. Other benefits of following a meatless diet plan include losing weight and helping the environment.
While optimal health can be reached while following a vegetarian diet, you can also find detriments. For example, many vegetarians consume too much sugar and carbohydrates, and this overindulgence can also be detrimental to your health. If you don’t get complete protein from your diet, you can become anemic, so it’s essential to calculate your protein intake correctly.
What is Meatless Monday
Studies on vegetarians compared to those who eat meat often consider the lifestyles, such as how many exercises, how many are smokers, and how many training regularly.
Before you consider adapting your lifestyle to one of several available meatless diets, speak to a physician or dietician to see if it’s acceptable with your health issues and the possibility of future problems relating to vegetarianism.
A Few Meatless Foods You Can Learn to Love
Meatless meals have come a long way from the tasteless tofu variety we once had to choose from. Now people are jumping on the Meatless Monday Recipe trend. So well that it could fool even the most dyed in the wool carnivore, you know.
You don’t have to resort to meatless meats to get taste and comfort from vegetarian meals. Recipes that include mostly staples you have in your pantry and refrigerator are lovely and nutritious to serve your family. Plus, these foods can save money on your grocery bill.
Vegetarian black bean chili is a winner, and so are pizzas, stacked high with lots of veggies and cheese. Veggie burgers that you make yourself or the frozen, packaged type that come under the names of “Boca Burgers” or “Gardenburgers” are great to grill outdoors, bake or heat in the frying pan.
Physicians and dieticians urge us to eat more meals based on a meatless diet to improve our health. Also, to combat the effects of obesity, costing our health care system millions in side effects.
Heart disease, cancer, and strokes are just a few of the health concerns that have been linked to overeating meat. Now, it’s an easy fix because there are so many ways that you can cut down on meat intake and still ensure nutrition and taste.
Delicious meatless Monday recipes are available straight from your supermarket and balanced recipes are available in cookbooks and online if you need the inspiration to get started. Even restaurants are offering meatless entrees on their menus in support of including less meat in our diets.
