Make an impact with these few tips! What is your food consumption behaviour? P.S vegetarian alert.

If you are feeling worried about climate change and want to make a change towards more sustainable lifestyle, take a look on your food consumption behaviour! Meat production has been revealed to be one of the biggest enemies to our planet.

Documentaries such as Cowspiracy, World Health Organization’s warning on meat’s cancer association and several studies have showed to the public that consuming processed meat is not sustainable to our planet and also has negative health effects. Several scientists, environmental activists and even politicians believe that lowering the methane emissions, which mostly come form meat production, would have a great positive impact on our planet. Although animal agriculture will not be removed from the world in near future, or possibly ever during human existence, you as a consumer can make a personal change towards more sustainable future. It does not matter wheater you live in Denmark, or anywhere else, the change is needed everywhere. As more consumers start thinking more eco-friendly, also governments and big companies start to adapt to demand. Therefore as the end of this post, here is a list of five tips how you can change your diet to more sustainable:

1.Start with small steps

You do not have to throw away every animal-based product from your fridge at this second. Good way to start is for example cutting your meat consumption only to one day at the week, or try a meatless month. A little experiment can change a lot as you feel how different it is to live without eating meat.

2. Start with red meat

As mentioned before, you do not have to become a vegan in a day. Start with the easiest one, the red meat and you can still enjoy chicken, fish, eggs and dairy. Then start slowly cutting out these. In the end, you don’t have to give up on everything, the key is to consume less.

3.Think about your health

Too high meat consumption has also dangerous effects on your health as well as to the climate. If environmental facts are not enough to convince you to stop meat eating, check out free documentary What the Health or read about World’s Health Organization’s  Q&A on meat’s cancerogenic effects. Eating processed meat has affects on diabetes, cancer, heart diseases and more.

4.Get inspired by recipes

Internet is full of delicious recipes for vegetarian and vegan dishes, so why not try one? All the traditional meat dishes such as lasagne, hamburgers, pasta bolognese and pizza can be replaced with veggies, pulse, nuts and many others by using right recipes, and they taste just as good! Becoming vegetarian or vegan can also improve your cooking skills when you get excited about new recipes and ideas.

5.Find the right replacements

Often the biggest worry about becoming vegetarian or vegan is how to ensure that your diet consists of enough protein. In fact, meat eaters usually take in way more protein than they need and protein requirements for the average adult are lower than people think. If your diet consists vegetables, grains, beans, nuts and soy protein, you will  be fine. In Denmark it can be hard to find sometimes good replacements for meat, but for example Quorn can be found in some supermarkets such as Kvickly and Føtex. It tastes and looks like minced beef, but it is vegetarian so it suits perfectly for example to pasta dishes.