Part-time Vegetarian

I never thought I would say this, due to my love of pork chops, chateaubriand and turkey meatloaf, but I have actually been considering becoming a vegetarian.

There are obviously many arguments on whether being a veggie is healthy or not. The main one being that on one hand you need the protein and iron, but on the other hand animal fat is terribly bad for you.

So what to do? Well the obvious answer is to become a part-time vegetarian. I think one really annoying thing about being a full blown vegetarian is how restricting it is. Like if you go to a party and the host serves meat and the veggie has to say they don't eat meat and then the host feels bad and the guest goes hungry and everyone feels awkward.

So being a part-time gives you the best of both worlds and you can make your own guidelines. For example mine are that I don't want to eat processed meat or meat with hormones. I also try to eat less than 3 servings of fish per month (mercury levels.) You can also do something like only eating meat on 2 days out of the week and being veggie for the rest.

I think that by taking the meat factor out, most people are likely to eat more vegetables and therefore increasing fiber and nutrients and cutting down on fats.

If you are skeptic on giving up meat, you really should look into the health benefits of cutting back. Here's a excerpt from Self magazine:

Why Go (Sorta) Veggie

"1. To stay slim Eat less meat, gain less weight- that's the upshot of one American Journal of Clinical Nutrition study. In it, folks who ate the most red and processed meat and poultry gained the most weight (almost 5 pounds) over five years. The cause isn't yet clear, but if cutting back on meat doesn't hurt and it helps keep us svelte, does the reason really matter?

2. To help the planet Trading red meat and dairy for a plant-based diet only one day a week cut more greenhouse gas emissions than buying all locally grown food, according to researchers at Carnegie-Mellon University. Make it two days weekly and you'll erase your carbon footprint that much more!

3. To fend off cancer Women who consumed the most animal fat in the form of red meat and high-fat dairy had a 24 percent higher risk of developing breast cancer, a study from Harvard University indicates. Carcinogens in cooked meat are one likely culprit, explains study author Eunyong Cho, Sc.D.

4. To protect your heart Women ages 20 to 55 who ate the most red meat also had a higher risk for coronary heart disease in a 26-year-long Harvard School of Public Health study. Whose risk was lower? Women who got the majority of their protein from vegetarian sources such as beans and nuts. Blame excess artery-clogging saturated fat for meat's heart-harming potential.

5. To save cash Plant proteins are cheap: One pound of dried beans costs $1.24 on average, must less than a pound of lean ground beef ($3.50) or bacon ($4.70). What's more, meat consumption costs the United States more than $190 billion a year in health-related expenses for issues like cancer and diabetes, says Neal Barnard, M.D., president of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C. In other words: Eat less meat; improve your health; avoid pricey treatments; cha-ching."

If that doesn't convince you, nothing will!