27/365 Meat-free Mondays

Friends and Fitness Enthusiasts,

I was listening to NPR the other week and heard a story about a push for Meat-free Mondays. Pretty self-explanatory yeah? But let me tell you why you should consider adopting this for yourself.

We know that meat is good for you for a couple reasons. It is a source of protein, omega-6 fats, vitamins, and minerals.
Protein: As discussed, there are many benefits for having protein in your diet. Most adults should be getting somewhere between 30 - 50 grams of protein daily. Proteins are made of amino acids. Meat features amino acids that aren't found in the other food groups. Likewise, other food groups feature amino acids not found in meat.
Omega-6 Fatty Acids: Fatty acids in general are good because your body needs them and can't produce them on their own. Your body uses fatty acids for "protecting your heart, joints, pancreas, mood stability, and skin. (Casey)" I know that omega-3 fatty acids are all the rage; you may not have even known that there are omega-6s out there.The reason is because meats have lots of omega-6 FA and we Americans tend to get plenty of it. It's important to have a 1:1 ratio of omega-3s and omega-6s.
Vitamins and Minerals: Meat provides B12, iron, magnesium, zinc, and a bunch of other vitamins and minerals. The health benefits of meat because of these include helping to form red blood cells and bone marrow, keeping your heart and liver healthy, and maintaining fluid-electrolyte balance.

So if meat provides all this good stuff, why are we cutting it out on Mondays? Like I said, we Americans enjoy our meat, maybe a little too much. A serving of meat is 4 oz., that's like the size of a deck of cards. Just by that we are overloading our 1:1 ratio. Instead of meat, try fish like salmon and trout which have lots of omega-3s. Meat cannot provide all the amino acids we need. You can take the opportunity to try other vegetables and products like quinoa that can. Also, it doesn't take much to restore the correct amounts of vitamins and minerals in your body.

Two other reasons to cut out meat for just one day of the week are the toll it takes on the environment and in your body. It takes "140,000 bathtubs full of water to produce 1 ton of beef (Aubrey)." That's a lot of water folks. Red meat is high in saturated fat which can increase cholesterol and your risk for heart disease.

In short, meat has health dangers and benefits. It will not hurt you to cut it out for one day. Be creative, and find other ways of getting your protein. Let's try it together! I will post meat-free protein-filled recipes as they come.
To learn more about Meat-free Mondays click here.

In health,

Lauren

Aubrey, A. (August, 9 2010). Campaign to make meatless mondays hip. Retrieved from http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=129025298 Casey, J. (n.d.). The Truth about fats. Retrieved from http://women.webmd.com/features/benefits-of-essential-fats-and-oils