A Meatless Month

Jason got me The China Study by Dr. T. Colin Campbell for Christmas, a book about the overabundance of animal protein in the average American's diet and the links between animal protein and all sorts of diseases (heart disease, cancer, diabetes, etc). Based on several decades of intense research, he instead advocates a whole food, plant-based diet. Jason suggested that we try to not eat animal products for the month of January, just to try it out, so that's the plan. Starting tomorrow, no meat, eggs, or dairy for 31 days! After that, we'll see what happens. (Side note - veggies, beans, and other plant products have plenty of protein and calcium, the two main things we all THINK we need meat and milk for, so it's not going to be harmful.)

We already switched to soy milk yesterday since we were out of our regular milk, and that's going to take some getting used to on my part. Jason loves soy milk, so it's no problem for him. I think the hardest part is going to be finding a variety of meatless meals to make that don't use cheese, milk, or eggs, that still have taste. That means no cream of chicken or cream of mushroom soup, which I use A LOT. Even my tofu lasagna recipe has cheese. It'll be fun, though (at least at first - haha!).

If this sounds like one of those fad diets that are always popular, like Atkins and South Beach, I don't think it is. Those use extreme calorie restricting in the beginning, which gives big results fast because you're barely eating, only to totally mess up your metabolism and make you gain a lot back later. In fact, the book says one of the most important things for switching to plant-based diets is to NOT ever make yourself hungry. And it doesn't promise fast results - just overall better health, and probably steady weight loss as an added benefit. An additional interesting point is that rats on lower protein diets voluntarily used their exercise wheels more than those eating higher protein diets. On that note, time for me to go jogging. :)