Below is an article written by Luisa Tousova, one of our Eco Council members, about cutting meat out from our diets... give it a read!
It's 2021, a new year and a new chance to introduce some healthier and more ethical choices with the food you consume. Vegans and vegetarians tend to get a bad reputation for being perhaps a tad over enthusiastic, but it's time to acknowledge the serious benefits of adapting a more plant based diet and maybe considering some changes.
While vegetarians only avoid eating meat, vegans cut out all animal products completely, including dairy, eggs and fish. And you can begin either with some small steps and cutting just some meat out or taking a leap and going fully vegan.
Either way just implementing some elements of a more plant focused diet has incredible health benefits.
Meat, especially from livestock, tends to carry bacteria and often leads to high cholesterol. Generally a vegan diet also tends to be lower in fat and sugars, therefore having a positive impact on your health. Because you’re removing dairy and meat, some of the fattiest foods. Just cutting red meat or beef out would have similar health benefits. It doesn't have to be an all or nothing complete lifestyle change.
Many stop eating meat because of ethical reasons. I’m sure by now everyone’s heard the stories and probably even witnessed the gruesome scenes from live stock farms. And unfortunately we’ve probably become quite desensitised to it by now. But honestly is animal exploitation worth a hamburger? Especially when there's an easily available plant-based alternative. Most of us live in a privileged enough position to easily have access to vegan products, by now they’re at every supermarket.
The environmental benefits of avoiding meat and animal products are incredible. Researchers at Oxford have found a vegan diet can reduce your carbon footprint from food by 73%. Cutting down on beef specifically helps reduce methane exhaustion, that is largely produced by livestock farming of cows. The Oxford Martin School’s Future of Food programme found that 70% of the emissions that contribute to global warming would be cut down if everyone went vegan. Mainly because of the disastrous effect large scale livestock farming has on the environment.
Understandably going vegan is a big change and difficult to adjust to. But it isn’t a lifestyle you have to adapt to instantly, you can begin slowly, just cutting out certain food groups. Personally, I began by cutting just meat out, then gradually decreased the amount of fish I ate until I was fully vegetarian. Going vegan was definitely much harder, I found that it was the easiest to start by replacing some dairy staples with the vegan alternatives. Like switching to almond milk, vegan cheeses and even soy heavy cream and butter. Being more conscious of what I’m eating has definitely been new and different and it has involved some more cooking. But other than that going vegan has been great!
I’d recommend maybe starting by just cutting out red meat, or dairy products, or maybe just have a weekly 'Meatless Monday'.
Even a small simple step can ultimately contribute to large scale change.