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Today’s Healthy Monday tip: Eat Less Meat!

It’s up to you whether you you want to give the stuff up completely, but it’s good food for thought (ha ha) to know that reducing your personal consumption of meat is better for the environment and for your body.

You can reduce your carbon footprint significantly by eating less red meat (and dairy too) in particular, as ruminants produce about 150 times as greenhouse gases than fish or chicken. However, if you don’t want to kick the habit, grass-fed beef can emit up to 20% less methane than their grain-fed (and less healthful) counterparts. Sure, grass-fed is more expensive, but it’s a better product and besides, you should still eat less of it. For more information, check out this article from Sustainable Table about grass-fed beef.

Last week Mark Bittman, the minimalist chef, gave us some helpful tips to eat less meat. He reminds us that you can get still get your necessary protein from items besides meat. Add some beans to a salad or make a meal with eggs. Just make sure those eggs are are pastured-raised, folks. Finally, he stressed the importance of not making meat the the focus of the meal—make veggies or rice the bulk of your plate.

With the abundance of spring and summer there are many new veggies to try. Spinach is abundant right now and so are strawberries. The air is dewy sweet at the Greenmarket in Union Square where I even found this delicious salad recipe (I added some fresh goat cheese too!) which was available at the GreenMarket table as part of their “GreenMarket Chef Recipe Series”. Who needs meat when you have farm fresh produce?

Strawberry and Spinach Salad

2 bunches spinach, rinsed and torn into bite-size pieces
4 cups slices strawberries
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white wine vinegar
1/2 cup white sugar
1 tablespoon poppy seeds
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons of sesame seeds

Directions:
1. In a large bowl, toss together the spinach and strawberries.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the oil, vinegar, sugar, sesame seeds and poppy seeds. Pour over the spinach and strawberries and toss to coat. Makes about six small salads.