PLANT-BASED EATING

Pathway to Plant-based Eating

You may already have heard of some compelling reasons why plant-based eating is beneficial:

• For your health: People following a plant-based diet have significantly reduced risk for chronic conditions such as hypertension, diabetes, and obesity.
• For the animals: Public demands for affordable meats, dairy products, and eggs come at a significant cost in animal welfare.
• For the planet: Animal agriculture has a significantly greater contribution to climate change than agricultural production of plant foods, and the world’s fishing stock has plunged markedly over recent decades.

Carbon Footprint of Foods*

Perhaps you have already been convinced of the reasons why plant-based eating may be better for the world and for your health, but you are concerned that a commitment toward this may be sacrificial—reducing your pleasure in living.  But many people who have embarked on this journey have experienced health improvements and have found that it has opened up new culinary options that are interesting, tasty, and satisfying.

Over recent years, there has been an explosion of on-line recipes and resources to help guide you in moving towards more plant-based meals.  There are also local resources such as the Rochester Area Vegan Society (RAVS) and Rochester Lifestyle Medicine Institute (RLMI).   RAVS was founded in 1989 and holds monthly pot-luck meetings with a speaker presentation, held at Brighton Town Lodge.  RAVS also publishes a quarterly newsletter with recipes, updated list of restaurants that offer plant-based foods, and articles.  You can subscribe to the newsletter in electronic or paper form, and recent and past newsletters are available on the website.  RLMI regularly offers its 15-day Whole Foods Plant-Based Jumpstart program.  Both of these organizations offer a pathway towards plant-based eating.

* Source information: Poore & Nemecek (2018) – Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. The mean (average) GHG emissions data is the data used. It is then converted to the portion size of each item.