Top 3 Reasons You Should Go Plant Based

Watch the newest video from Pasture on why you should go plant based here:

It’s true, it’s not for everyone at this moment in time. However, to give ourselves and our planet the health we deserve we need to seriously consider our diets.

Over the past 50 years, meat production has more than quadrupled. Obviously this means that the demand has gone up- we are eating more meat and dairy in our diets than almost ever before, and it’s causing major problems throughout the world.

Animal Cruelty

Eating less meat will undoubtedly help you lower the amount of animal cruelty that occurs in the world. As humans begin to eat less meat, the demand will go down. Following a decrease in the demand for meat, suppliers will begin to lower their production- and following that, there will be a decrease in the amount of animals that suffer for our taste buds.

Environmentalism

Decreasing the amount of meat in our diets also has the power to improve the health of the planet. Our current eating habits are a bit roundabout. We use a large portion of the plants we produce to feed our livestock, which we then consume. It’s no surprise that vast amounts of energy are wasted in this process. In fact, according to David Pimentel, professor of ecology in Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, “Animal protein production requires more than eight times as much fossil-fuel energy than production of plant protein while yielding animal protein that is only 1.4 times more nutritious for humans than the comparable amount of plant protein.” Pimentel also suggested that, “if all the grain currently fed to livestock in the United States were consumed directly by people, the number of people who could be fed would be nearly 800 million.” This would be more than enough to feed the approximately 40 million hungry Americans in the US, as well as provide us plenty of leftover food to export to other countries to help meet hunger needs.

All of this continues to go on, simply because this is the diet we have become accustomed to. It’s time for change. If we want to keep the planet healthy, we all have to start taking steps to help adopt lifestyles that will support the cause. Eating more plants and less meat is something you can do NOW to help.

Health

As a long term care pharmacist, I deal firsthand with “diseases of affluence”. These are diseases that can be mostly attributed to our poor lifestyle and dietary habits in countries that mostly follow a Western diet, or the “Standard American Diet” (SAD). These diseases include but are not limited to:

-Heart Disease (the number one killer in the US)

-Type 2 Diabetes

-Autoimmune Diseases

-Osteoporosis

-Cancer

-Obesity

-Mental Health (i.e. dementia and Alzheimers as well as general well-being)

It is my dream that someday we can VASTLY decrease the amount of dependence on medications to help control these diseases. It is my hope that as we get older we will live happy, healthy lives that are not inhibited by these diseases and the many burdens that they bring. In order to do this, we have to take our health into our own hands. Many of these diseases are shown to be major problems ONLY in countries that subscribe to the meat heavy diets that we consume in the Western world. However, because of the United States’ powerful influence around the world, we have sort of “paved the way” for many other developing countries to start eating more meat. Now is our chance to show the world that we are dedicated to our own health and the health of the environment, so I challenge you to begin eating more plants and less meat. I think you will be surprised at just how great you might feel after just one or two weeks. You will also be surprised at just how delicious plants can taste.

Godspeed.

-Corb :)

Sources:

https://ourworldindata.org/meat-production

https://news.cornell.edu/stories/1997/08/us-could-feed-800-million-people-grain-livestock-eat

https://www.feedingamerica.org/hunger-in-america/facts

https://www.cdc.gov/nchs/fastats/deaths.htm