Meatless Monday Mania

There is a growing movement encouraging people to adopt a lifestyle of consuming less meat. The most famous of supporters is Sir Paul McCartney who has put his considerable influence behind Meat Free Monday. There is a great little website titled Part-Time Carnivore which encourages you to commit to a level of meat-free living. And, NPR has an article today about Sid Lerner (advertising guru) and his effort to make a meatless day cool.

Do you meat? There are many reasons people choose to reduce or eliminate meat from their diet. The top three are:

• Health
• Environment
• Animal Welfare

Ultimately, the decision to eat meat is a personal one each of us has to make. There isn't one prescribed way of eating that is good for every human on Earth. Some people are more healthy with a regular diet of meat; others do much better to eliminate or drastically reduce their animal protein consumption. The  secret to lifelong wellness is for you to figure out what works best for you. And, keep in mind, what works best for you may not be the best diet for your spouse, partner or children. 

Life is generally more sweet when we respect, and embrace, each others' differences. The idea of meatless Monday is great because it raises our collective awareness. If you ultimately choose to stop eating meat, or eat it only occasionally, good for you if it is what makes you happy and healthy. Don't join any movement because it is the cool, hip thing to do. Know yourself, respect yourself and make good choices each day. 

Food Efficiency

Many people will tout the benefits of joining the vegetarian masses. If you ask veggies why they choose to be so some will say health, some to save animals and the latest fad reason is the environment. The environment, you ask? Is there any actual environmental impact from vegetarianism?

This blog by GOOD includes a great chart that shows "the energy cost required to produce different kinds of food and then the efficiency of those foods based on the calories they provide."

To use the much maligned corn as an example...
Energy to produce 1 lb of corn: .43 kWh
Calories per pound of corn: 390
Energy efficiency of corn: 102%

And then beef:
Energy to produce 1 lb of beef: 31.5 kWh
Calories per pound of beef: 1176
Energy efficiency of beef: 4.3%

So we expend much more energy to create 1 pound of beef vs. 1 pound of corn that results in nearly 4 times more calories (which most Americans do not need). The difference in energy efficiency is nearly unbelievable. Granted the blog goes on to say the production of food only accounts for 10% of the first-world energy consumption so there are many other things we can do to reduce our environmental impact.

Food for thought... literally!