Meat Free Monday have just celebrated their 5th anniversary. 5 years ago, in 2009, Paul, Mary and Stella McCartney started the Meat Free Monday campaign to encourage more people to cut meat out of their diets for just one day of the week. As a result of cutting out meat there are many benefits towards peoples health and also benefits towards the planet. Cutting out meat for just one day of the week is a very simple thing to do for the benefits that it creates. There are many meat free meals that you can make at home, purchase from supermarkets or have in restaurants. Meat free options can be very tasty, with lots of different flavours. You can have meat free pasta dishes or meat free burgers and fries. With soya based products you can now eat what you normally like to eat but replace the meat with soya or Quorn products such as meat free mince and meat free sausages.
In America they have the Meatless Monday campaign, which started out in 2003, with the same aim of encouraging the public to go meat free on a Monday to then create the health benefits and the benefits towards the planet. It was said that Monday was a good day to have a meat free day as it is the first day of the week. Many people will start something new on a Monday, so it is a good day to join the Meatless Monday and Meat Free Monday campaign’s. Monday’s are also known as the day that people will start a diet, after a weekend of eating out or having takeaways, therefore Monday’s can be a good start to think about getting healthier so why not start with cutting out meat on that particular day or try going completely meat free.
At Smart Restaurants we also support the Meat Free Monday and Meatless Monday campaign’s and have encouraged the team to eat meat free meals on a Monday. We also have vegetarians in the team who like to encourage others to eat less meat. Over the past couple of months we have also given many suggestions on what you can eat to successfully have a meat free monday, such as stuffed vegetables, meat free pasta and meat free rice meals. With an ever growing collection of meat free meal suggestions, you can try to go completely meat free and become a vegetarian.
The more people that join this campaign, then the more benefits it will have to peoples health. It is not healthy to eat a great amount of meat, especially red meat and processed meat. Eating too much meat can lead to diseases such as cancer and heart disease. Eating less meat will also help the planet and will mean less animals will need to be killed. The way that animals are treated can be shocking, many animals are raised in horrific living conditions, where pens and barns can be too small for animals to move about. Free range animals are given more space to roam and have lived a bit of a better life. Food waste is also on the rise and this includes lots of meat. A recent report stated that over 86 million chickens are thrown away each year alone, this could be due to the meat going off, passing its sell by date or just simply being left uneaten. The more people that join the Meat Free Monday campaign will help contribute to lowering the amount of meat wasted in the country.
Join the campaign today and cut meat out of your diet on a Monday! Eat less meat for your health and help towards the planet. The benefits are endless!
