There’s a campaign heating up in the U.S. and Canada to give up eating meat one day a week. The Washington Post described Meatless Monday as “a movement backed by a broad array of pubic health advocates, animal welfare activists and environmentalists that asks carnivores to give up meat one day a week .”  

It’s already picked up some momentum.  According to the Post:

• Baltimore City Public Schools launched meatless Mondays for its 82,00 students in October [2009].
• Thirty-two U.S. hospitals have signed on to the Balanced Menu Challenge, a commitment to reduce meat purchases by 20 percent, and
• The state of Michigan held a one-day Meatout during which residents were encouraged not to eat meat.

And as the momentum picks up, resistance increases from the meat industry, including the American Meat Institute, the National Cattleman’s Beef Association, The National Pork Board, and the Farm Bureau. An immediate concern of the industry groups are the new dietary guidelines to be released by the U.S. Department of Agriculture this fall. 

A few food facts

All meat is protein, but not all protein is meat. Other sources of protein are dairy products, fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds. 

Protein is made of compounds called amino acids. Of the 20 amino acids we need, our bodies make only ten.  The others–which the body can’t make–we get from our diet . (These “essential” amino acids include one which is required by children but not by adults.)

Meat provides all the essential amino acids, and thus are complete proteins. Other complete proteins are dairy products, soy, and soybeans.

All other protein sources–fruits, vegetables, grains, nuts, and seeds are incomplete. They supply some of the essential amino acids but not all of them. Vegetarians (who eat no meat) or vegans (who eat no meat or dairy products) need to eat a variety of protein sources to get enough protein.

Why Meatless Monday is a good idea

It addresses concerns about the environmental impacts and ethics of factory farming–raising animals in confined animal feeding operations.

And Meatless Mondays are good for your health. One problem with meat is that it comes with fat, particularly unhealthful saturated fat. Eating significant amounts of medium-fat meats (such as most beef, pork, lamb, or veal) or high-fat meats (such as pork spareribs, pork sausage, or bacon)   puts a person at risk for cardiovascular disease. Over the years, in fact, I’ve given up spareribs, pork sausage, hot dogs, pepperoni and other processed meats and all beef products.

So you can get all the protein you need but much less fat by eating less meat-especially less fatty meat. You can substitute dairy products for meat, but they also contain fat, including saturated fat.

Fortunately, these days most dairy products are avaible in tasty reduced-fat or low-fat or no-fat versions. I draw the line, though, at low-fat cheese. I love cheese–grilled cheese sndwiches, home-made macaroni and cheese (not the disgusting stuff that comes in a blue box), and cheese on a plate with apples or pears. Yummm! But I’d rather eat no cheese than no-fat cheese.

What to eat instead of meat

Meatless Monday doesn’t have to be grim or tasteless or drab or disgusting or weird. Some of the best meals I cook have no meat, and they’re absolutely delicious. Like the Almost Mom’s Quick Chili with Pineapple Corn Muffins I served my BF one time . 

I think of it this way: Substitute, don’t sacrifice! If going  meatless for a day or more makes you feel disgruntled and deprived, you’re not doing it right.

If you skip bacon or sausage, a meatless breakful is easy. Just eat what you usually eat: 

• Eggs and toast 
• Oatmeal, low-fat milk, and fruit or
• Pancakes, low-fat cottage cheese, and fruit 

Lunch can be challenging, depending on whether you eat at home or at the office or you go out

• Peanut-butter sandwich on whole-wheat bread, a small green salad, and fruit–good for when you bring your lunch to work   
• Lentil or bean soup, whole-wheat bread, and fruit or 
• A veggie wrap and salad 

And for dinner a terrific salad and one of these main courses:

A mixed-veggie soufflé

Macaroni ‘n cheese

Burritos or tostadas with rice and beans

Whole-wheat pasta with marina sauce  

If you absolutely can’t think of a good meatless main course, think of something you really like that does have meat and Goggle  “vegetarian chili ” or “vegetarian stroganoff” or whatever.  

More information

Meatless Mondays US

Meatless Mondays Canada 

Savvy Vegetarian

MyPyramid.gov   

Whether you’re already a vegetarian or a vegan or just thinking about cutting back on meat, I’d love to have your comments, questions, and suggestions.

How do you stay motivated, especially over the long haul? When you decide to do something regularly, such as exercise, what keeps you going? Do you work out with a friend? Do you give yourself rewards along the way?

For me, participating in the President’s Challenge  has been a terrific way to get motivated and stay motivated to exercise. Here’s what the program offers:

***A long varied list of physical activities from which you pick your favorites

***Specific milestones for you to work toward

***An online Activity Log to track your progress

***Awards when you reach the milestones

The awards are a Bronze, Silver, and Gold medal, just like in the Olympics! I was pretty pumped when I earned the Bronze and Silver; I announced that I was going for the Gold.

It’s taken me a lot longer than I thought for various reasons. One was my BF’s great new job which required moving our household, including 1,600 books; two cats; two vehicles; and the two  of us across the U.S. in the dead of winter. 

One of the wonderful things, though, about the President’s Challenge is that—if you can’t participate for a time—you can come back whenever you’re able to and pick up right where you left off.

Yesterday when I went for my walk, I was only 20-some points short of earning a Gold medal. When I got back and logged into my Activity Log, I saw that I had earned those few points and that

You are 16 % of the way toward the goal of 500,000 points for a Platinum Award. Only 419,797 points to go!

Now that’s a goal! I wonder how long this will take.

What do you think? How do you stay motivated to exercise? Do you like an organized approach or something more informal, impromptu? Have you tried the President’s Challenge? I welcome your thoughts, comments, or suggestions.

Did you know that approximately 24 million Americans have type 2 diabetes, a chronic progressive disease? A disease which can double your risk of heart attack or stroke? A disease which–if not well managed over the years–can result in blindness, kidney failure, or the need for amputation of your feet or lower legs.  

And did you know that approximately ¼ of the people who have type 2 diabetes do not even know that they have it. The fabulous Patti LaBelle (shown here) was one. Her first symptom was collapsing on stage while she was performing. She was rushed to the hospital where she was diagnosed with type 2 diabetes.

So you could say that Patti LaBelle and I have something in common. We both have type 2 diabetes, and we’re both managing it well. You could even say that we’re both lucky, because–as bad as type 2 diabetes is–it’s worse to have it and not know it  than to know that you have it. Because if you don’t know that you have the disease, you’re probably not doing what you need to do to manage it.

To raise awareness of type 2 diabetes, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) declared March 23 as ADA Alert Day. The purpose was to encourage people to take the Diabetes Risk Test shown below and join the movement to STOP DIABETES. The test estimates whether you are at risk, based upon your answers to questions about the risk factors, including age, family history, blood pressure, weight, and level of physical activity.  

I strongly urge you to take the test and to urge others, such as your parents or grandparents, to take it also. If the results indicate that you have some risk factors for pre-diabetes or diabetes, you’ll be directed to “Click here to find out what they are.”

After that, go back by clicking on “Your Risk Message.”

Next click on “Learn More” for a wealth of information about type 2 diabetes, the risk factors, diet, exercise, monitoring blood-glucose, and so on.

And remember the words of Patti LaBelle, who says “I have diabetes. It doesn’t have me.”

It’s hard to believe that a new year is about to start. It’s nearly January, named for Janus–the god who looks back at the past and ahead to the future at the same time. Janus, the god of beginnings and endings.

And for me, the new year truly is a time for beginnings and endings. My BF and I will move from Washington State to Maryland where he starts a wonderful new job in January. If he had sat down and written a description of his perfect job, it would look a lot like this job. My BF refers to his situation as a “failed retirement.” He is passionate about his work, and retirement—which lasted mere months—did not suit him at all.

I’m excited for him and for myself. New beginnings are energizing; they keep us growing and learning and engaged. But, like Janus, new beginnings have two faces. They are energizing to be sure but also exhausting. There is simply no way to avoid the hassles, the obstacles, and the road-blocks—both literal and metaphorical—involved in getting from where we are now to where we are going.

For example, last week my BF and I traveled to Maryland to look for a place to live among other things. We were thrilled to find an apartment in a development with a spectacular location on Chesapeake Bay and close to my BF’s work. But thanks to the challenges of air travel in these post-9/11 days and jet lag, we were also exhausted, stressed, and overwhelmed. 

And our work is just beginning.  We need to move the following stuff from Seattle to Maryland: 

• a houseful of furniture, including 1,600 books (mostly his),
• two cats,
• the two of us,
• two vehicles (his truck and my car), and
• one airplane

We also need to rent out my house.

The sheer magnitude of these and related tasks boggles the mind. I know that we can do it. I know that we are very fortunate to have this opportunity. But, I also know that it ain’t gonna be easy.

Photo by quinn.anya

What do you really know about aging, and is what you know really true? Unfortunately, most of what we all know is a confusing mix of fact and fiction, of myth and reality. 

Some of the common myths are dispelled in the book “Successful Aging” by John W. Rowe, M.D. and Robert L. Kahn, Ph.D., published in 1989. The book discusses results of extensive studies of aging funded by the John D. and Katherine T. MacArthur Foundation. An earlier post dealt with Three Common Myths of Aging.

This one discusses the myth that after years of bad health habits—like smoking, drinking too much, eating too much, and being physically inactive—the damage is done. That horse is out of the barn, and it ain’t never comin’ back! The reality is far more hopeful.

It’s (almost) never too late for you to change

There’s no question that it’s better for you to maintain healthy habits throughout your life. But much research shows that it’s almost never too late to change your bad habits, and it’s almost never too late for you to benefit from the changes. 

Smoking, for example, increases your risk of lung cancer and other lung diseases, coronary heart disease, stroke, and other illnesses. But if you stop smoking, here’s what happens:

• Within 5 years, you are not much more likely to have heart disease than some one who has never smoked. And this is true regardless of your age, the number of years you’ve smoked, or how heavy your smoking habit. 
• Your risk of lung concer also falls, although much more slowly. “It takes at least fifteen years after quitting for a smoker’s risk of lung cancer to become as low as that of a lifetime nonsmoker.”

Your age may not be the problem

Over the years, bad habits may affect your overall health and level of fitness far more than your age itself. In fact, according to Rowe and Kahn:

[Reductions in physical performance] are often the cumulative result of lifestyle–what we do with our bodies and what we take into them–rather than the result of aging itself. Years of cigarette smoking, excessive use of alcohol, too little exercise and too much food, especially fats and sugars, do physical damage that is often wrongly attributed to age.

Example 1

The Metabolic Syndrome is a cluster of risk factors that together increase the risk of a heart attack. The factors include high blood pressure, high cholesterol and triglycerides, and “the pot-bellied obesity so common in middle-aged and elderly people (especially men).” 

It turns out that–if you have the Metabolic Syndrome–the increased risk of heart disease is related to your weight, not your age. When your weight goes down and stays down, so does your risk of heart disease.  

Example 2

In the United States and other prosperous countries, systolic blood pressure generally increases with age. (Systolic blood pressure is the first number, as in 140/80.) This increase is so common, say the authors, that it is often taken for granted and considered the inevitable result of ‘normal’ aging.

“But,” they say, “in developed countries, not all older people show increases in blood pressure, and…in less-advantaged countries—where people eat less meat, more grains and vegetables, and keep physically active—blood pressure tends not to rise with age.”

What does this mean for you?

This is good news. Very good news. It mean that–whatever your age–if you have good health habits now, you should keep doing what you’ve been doing.  And even if you have some bad health habits, you can change. You can actually become healthier and more active as you grow old. It’s up to you!

Photo by kamshots