Reasons To Cut Back On Meat Intake

If you enjoy a juicy burger or thick steak, you are getting a healthy dose of protein and iron, but you might also be damaging your health. Regularly eating meat helps you achieve recommended protein levels, but it can be detrimental to your health, as well as to the environment. Examine some of the benefits to cutting back on meat intake, and you might be motivated to include more vegetarian options in your diet.

Better Health

Diets rich in plant foods, such as fruits, vegetables, nuts, beans, legumes and whole grains, might boost your health and help prevent disease. MayoClinic.com reports that plant-based diets are often high in fiber, vitamins and minerals. The clinic further says individuals who eat a vegetarian diet often weigh less, consume fewer calories and have lower cholesterol levels. While you do not need to completely eliminate meat from your diet, cutting back might lower your risk of disease, illness and death.

Less Saturated Fat

Meat, particularly processed meats such as hot dogs and red meat, can contain large amounts of saturated fat. A diet high in meat can increase your intake of saturated fat, which can raise your LDL, or bad cholesterol levels, as well as increase your risk for diseases such as type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. Cutting out a few of your usual servings of meat can help reduce saturated fat consumption, which might help you improve your overall health.

More Fruits and Vegetables

If you are replacing a portion of your usual meat consumption, you might end up eating more fresh fruits and vegetables because you will need something to consume in place of the meat. Stocking your refrigerator with fresh produce in place of meat will likely encourage you to eat more fruits and vegetables. Cutting back on meat can also be done by preparing only a small portion of the meat your favorite recipes call for and replacing the rest with your favorite fruits and vegetables. You will eat less meat and boost your intake of vitamins and minerals.

Environment

Farming and raising the animals that provide you with meat takes fossil fuels for energy. It also uses other resources to prepare the food and transport the supplies necessary to produce food-quality livestock, Alexandra Greeley reports in her book, "The Everything Guide to Being Vegetarian." This can tax the environment by contributing to greenhouse gases and other forms of pollution. Cutting your meat intake can help reduce how much pollution is emitted and how many resources are used to make your food. Eating less meat is a small lifestyle change that can add up to a big difference.