Reducing your meat consumption: new arguments

Hélène Baribeau November 11, 2014 Save Money, Vegan, Vegetables, Vegetarian

Are you interested in saving money and reducing your ecological footprint? Why not try to reducing meat consumption every day. You’d certainly be doing a favour to your wallet and to the planet.

Here are some tips to help you!

Better for your wallet

Eating vegetable protein in place of meat sometimes will have a positive impact on your food budget. Meat is often expensive and if there are several mouths to feed or if you’re a student on a shoestring budget, cost-cutting measures become a must. Vegetable proteins such as tofu or legumes make excellent substitutes for meat and are therefore a great alternative to meat products. In fact, they are easy to cook and can be incorporated in many recipes like stir-fries, soups, salads, etc.

To compare, 100 grams of tofu and legumes cost $0.44 and $0.41 respectively, while the same quantity of a joint of beef costs $2.86.

Are you convinced?

Better for the environment

The environmental impact of livestock farming is also a very important element to consider. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), this industry, combining all livestock production sectors, is responsible for 14.5% of all greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions of anthropogenic origin, i.e., produced by humans. At equal amounts, beef production generates 13 times more GHG than chicken production and 57 times more than potato production.

What’s more, a study published by Soret et al. in 2014 in the scientific journal American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, showed that GHG emissions produced by a semi-vegetarian and a vegetarian would be reduced by 22% and 29% respectively compared to those produced by non-vegetarian. So less consumption of meat also helps the planet!

If you weren’t already convinced, I hope you are now!

But how do you go about it?

First of all, there is a growing initiative worldwide to reduce meat consumption, with movements like “Meatless Monday” in Quebec.

Another way to gradually cut down on meat consumption is to only eat meat during one meal a day.

There also exists a fairly recent food trend called flexitarianism. This is a flexible form of vegetarianism in which people do eat some meat during the week, but try to minimize its consumption.

So flexitarians may opt for predominantly vegetarian meals every day, but will eat meat when they go to a restaurant or have dinner at a friend’s house, for example. Such a diet provides a great alternative to the vegetarian diet and can be a way of reducing meat consumption.

Finally, a variety of are only a click away on the Internet. Don’t have Internet? Why not go to your local library and borrow books on the subject or browse around in your favourite bookshop for a vegetarian book that suits your tastes and requirements.

By Anne Bisson-Petit, nutrition intern for Helene Baribeau, dietitian

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Author

Hélène Baribeau

Helene's mission is to assist and motivate people in acquiring habits and optimal dietary behaviour to live and stay on top. Mother of two young children, she wants to share any food tips that can make the difference between an active and energetic life and a life marked by fatigue and illness.