From our friends at Healthy Monday…
Dawn Jackson Blatner, a registered dietitian, considered herself a vegetarian. Her diet consisted almost entirely of plant-based foods, but she didn’t want to deprive herself of the occasional hamburger at a back yard barbeque or her favorite family recipes. Rather than remain a “closet meat-eater”, Dawn redefined her habits. She embraced the term “flexitarian” or, “flexible vegetarian”, and began sharing her lifestyle with her clients. Blatner’s book, The Flexitarian Diet, shows readers that they can achieve the health benefits of vegetarianism without having to give up their favorite meals.
Decreasing the amount of meat in your diet can have a variety of positive health benefits. A recent study published in The New York Times found a direct correlation between the amount of meat individuals ate and their life expectancy. In The Flexitarian Diet, Blatner adds that those who eat a semi-vegetarian diet have a lower risk of heart disease, diabetes and cancer. Vegetarians also weigh 15 percent less than non-vegetarians on average. Blatner encourages us all to take steps towards improved health and fitness by reducing our meat consumption slowly and making dietary changes part of our normal routine.
The Flexitarian Diet also offers tips and recipes that make it easy to choose healthy, meatless meals. The book contains five weeks’ worth of easy-to-make recipes, many of which offer the option to “flex swap” plant-based ingredients for meat or dairy. Blatner also provides cooking tips on a variety of produce, beans, nuts and meat substitutes.
Dawn encourages breaking away from the monotony of the standard American diet by trying new ingredients alongside familiar favorites. We at Healthy Monday couldn’t agree more! Healthy, plant-based meals can be an opportunity to experience wonderful new foods and flavors. The Flexitarian Diet shows us how to gradually add variety to the table, without asking us to give up the comfort foods we have grown to love. Start on your own flexitarian diet this week with a Meatless Monday and this easy recipe for Spicy Breakfast Burritos!
4 responses so far ↓
1 Raine Saunders // Aug 24, 2009 at 6:25 pm
I think this is a great web site, and I like this Flexitarian article. It’s an interesting twist on maintaining an exclusively vegetarian diet. I don’t generally recommend that people eat vegetarian diets exclusively (nor vegan) because there are various nutrients that simply cannot be obtained from vegetarian diets alone (Vitamin Bb12 is a good example). I’m a big advocate for sustainable-raised, grass-fed meats, game, and pasture-raised poultry. I know many vegans and vegetarians alike boycott meat because of the health problems associated with eating meat, animal abuse, and damage to the environment. But you can support your health, the environment, and humane treatment of animals by boycotting factory and industrial meat and purchasing sustainable meats. I’d love to see more coverage of these topics on green sites like this one. Also, my observation is that many people I know who claim to be vegetarian/vegan actually eat lot less vegetables than it would seem they should. Many of them are actually consuming a lot of processed grain products which are derived from genetically-modified crops and that also are sprayed with pesticides. Another reason to support sustainable agriculture – meat and produce alike! Please visit Agriculture Society and read our articles about sustainable living…www.agriculturesociety.com
-Raine Saunders, manager/editor/writer, Agriculture Society
2 Beachbody // Aug 25, 2009 at 5:38 am
I’m really not into veggies but your post made me want to try more of it.
3 fast cooker // Aug 26, 2009 at 9:08 am
I’m a vegetarian, and I’m happy to learn new recipes.
4 Amber // Aug 29, 2009 at 4:43 pm
Loved your post. We are not vegetarian, but do eat a variety of pasture fed animals and wild caught fish. A few times a week, I cook vegetarian meals for my family to increase healthy and cut costs from my grocery budget, not to mention it is easier on the environment. Awesome blog. I will be back soon!
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