Benefits of going plant based

I’m not in this for morality reasons

Many people go vegan because of animal rights issues. I am not one of them. Yes, I agree that the commercial meat industry has turned into something rather despicable and I fully endorse obtaining meat from sustainable, small scale sources over the meat churned out by the industry. Commercial farming just doesn’t produce tasty animals. However, my primary interest in plant based lifestyle centers around health and well being. I am not going to shame anyone for eating animal products. In fact, the science shows that you don’t even need to go 100% vegan to have beneficial changes. Even cutting meat consumption to 1-3 times a week is effective. Plant based diets reduce inflammation, cholesterol, risk of heart disease, blood pressure, improve blood sugar, the list goes on! I am not going to try to convince anyone to totally give meat up for the rest of their lives, I merely want to support healthy lifestyles and help show you that there are simple, delicious ways to increase the plants in your day to day eating.

Ecological Benefit

A side effect of cutting meat out of your diet is also good for the planet. The resources it takes to raise 1 cow are immense. Especially compared to those needed to grow plants. If every person in the United States cut their meat consumption by 1 day a week it would make an enormous impact, less greenhouse gases, less wasted resources to raise energy sink animals. So give it a try once a week, celebrate #meatlessmonday!

So why vegan?

Do it for you, do it for the planet, do it for the animals, do it for your wallet (plants are typically cheaper than buying meat)! Whatever your reason, its a good one, I encourage you to give it a shot!

Plant‐Based Diets Are Associated With a Lower Risk of Incident Cardiovascular Disease, Cardiovascular Disease Mortality, and All‐Cause Mortality in a General Population of Middle‐Aged Adults

Hyunju Kim PHD et al. August 2019

Huge study out of the Journal of American Heart Association looked at 12168 adults over 30 years. The link for the full study is below, but in summary, high adherence to a plant based diet is associated with a 19% less risk of cardiovascular disease and 11% lower risk of overall mortality. That’s some major benefit. The study shows that even if you do not strictly adhere to the diet, even partially going plant based shows some big improvements in cardiovascular risk. More plants, less heart attacks, pretty straight forward. Here’s the whole study https://www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/JAHA.119.012865