Reduce Meat

Reducing our meat intake even by one meal a day, or one day a week, we could make an enormous difference to global emissions. Going vegetarian is good for the environment and even better for your heart! Research shows a highly significant correlation between the consumption of even small amounts of animal-based foods and the increasing prevalence of heart disease.

A major study published in February 2005 reconfirmed the link between meat consumption and heart problems. The study, which was published in the American Journal of Epidemiology, concluded that among the 29,000 participants, those who ate the most meat were also at the greatest risk for heart disease. The researchers also reported that a high intake of protein from vegetable sources like tofu, nuts, and beans lowers our risk of heart disease by 30 percent.

18% of the global greenhouse-gas emissions are emitted by the animal industry. That is more than all the cars in the world together, and a large part of that 18% is nitrous oxide and methane emissions. Both these gases have a far more powerful greenhouse gas effect than carbon dioxide. Burping cows and sheep emit methane while all livestock cause nitrous oxide gases, so cutting down on the meat you eat, is like taking a small step towards mitigating global warming.

In the early 1990s 46 percent of Indians were non-vegetarians. Today, after slightly over a decade, 64 percent of Indians are non-vegetarians. With the per capita income rising, a much larger chunk of the urban population is eating outside home and the preference is for non-vegetarian food. As per the survey, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, in North India 40 percent of the population are non-vegetarians whereas 90 percent of South Indians are non-vegetarians. As the risk of heart diseases continues to rise in India, and as climate change continues to takes its toll, maybe the time has come for Indians to go back to the veggies. --- Source: The Climate Project