Okay, SninkyPoo... I'll bite. Just what is 90% vegan, anyway?
It's just what it sounds like. Rather than committing to eating a 100% vegan diet, plan to get 90% of your daily calories from plants, and the remaining 10% from local, organic, free-range, sustainable animal sources.
It’s something I think every American CAN do, and should do, for some pretty obvious and simple reasons. And what are those reasons? IMHO, eating 90% vegan is good for your:
Waistline
Wallet
And it’s also good for the
World
What am I on about? Head below the Amazing Orange Squiggle for more!
Let’s start in the shallower end of the pool: waistline. I’m not sure anyone would argue that going 90% vegan is NOT good for one’s waistline. By definition you'll likely consume fewer calories - and if you translate "plant food" to mean whole and unprocessed plant foods (rather than white flour/white pasta/white potatoes, etc.) you will definitely be cutting calories without even trying.
Just before 9/11 I decided that enough stomach fat was enough, and started eating 100% vegan. I lost 60+ pounds in short order, and maintained that weight for over 6 years.
The minute I decided I’d rather eat bacon than not, I started to gain weight, and within a year had put back all but 10 of those lost pounds.
Now, as a newly-minted 90% vegan, I am already re-dropping the weight! (I know, I know – but I’m not yo-yo-ing. This is over several years.)
As for your wallet – well, it’s a no-brainer that you can save money if you’re not buying meat and dairy. Have you shopped for meat lately? In a word: yikes.
And yes, it's definitely possible to inflate your grocery bill if you go crazy in the organic produce section at Whole Paycheck. But if you shop what's seasonal, get adventurous with foods like lentils, oats, rutabaga, cabbage, and squash and get most of your protein from whole grains and beans and tofu, it can make a big difference to your bottom line.
Finally (and here's my main point), while it might not be immediately apparent that going 90% vegan can impact carbon emissions and global climate change (the world part of our Waistline/Wallet/World triumvirate), in fact it can – and in a big way.
I got this list from Mikko Alanne, who blogged about it over at Huffington Post. You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/...
If all Americans did not eat meat for one day a week, they would save 99.6 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions, or the equivalent of removing 46 million round trip flights between Los Angeles and New York, or taking 19.2 million cars off the road for a full year.
If everyone in the US did not eat meat for two days a week, they would save 199 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would have the same effect as replacing ALL household appliances in the US with energy efficient ones.
If all Americans did not eat meat for three days a week, they would save almost 300 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would have a greater impact on the climate than replacing all US cars with Toyota Priuses.
If everyone in the US did not eat meat for four days a week, they would save 398 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would be the carbon savings equivalent of cutting the use of all electricity, gas, oil, petroleum, and kerosene in the United States in half.
If all Americans abstained from eating meat for five days a week, they would save 498 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would result in the carbon savings equivalent of planting 13 billion trees and letting them grow for ten years.
If all Americans did not eat meat for six days a week, they would save nearly 600 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would be the equivalent of eliminating the total electricity use of all households in the United States.
And finally: If everyone in the United States ate a vegetarian diet for seven days, they would save around 700 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. That would be the same as removing all the cars off the roads in the US.
WOW!!!! Doesn't that sound like something we might want to do?
Now, I'll be the first to admit that eating 100% vegan can be challenging at times. Case in point? I stopped doing it, even though I was healthy, felt great, and looked - well, not Kate Moss, but definitely cute/curvy.
I already find that eating 90 percent vegan makes navigating a social life so much easier - and that's not a small thing. It means that if I'm out someplace with very few 100% vegan options, I don't have to resort to fries and a salad (no cheese please!). My food choices are far more inconspicuous, and I like that in a social situation.
More important, it's a goal that sounds attainable – it’s do-able. It's something you might actually be able to convince friends to do. It sounds flexible, not punitive and prescriptive.
While I wasn’t one of those vegans who insert their dietary preferences into every conversation, I did sometimes end up at an office party, or a restaurant with friends, where there were few-to-no vegan options. And when the “What CAN you eat?!” conversation started, as it inevitably did, I noticed a tendency for folks to proactively exclaim, “Well I could NEVER be a vegan! I’ve got have MY bacon!” Or, “That sounds so hard! How can you LIVE without CHEESE?!?!”
90 percent vegan means that you CAN have "your" bacon. And "your" cheese. Just make sure that if you're opting for meat and dairy that it's locally sourced IF POSSIBLE (and yes, even with the "if possible" caveat I know that makes me sound like a twee foodie), and that it accounts for only 10% of the calories you eat each day.
Brass tacks: if you need 2,000 calories to function, 200 per day can be animal stuff. Like a couple of sunny side eggs, fried with a pat of butter. Or a can of tuna. Or a can of sardines. Or 4 slices of Canadian bacon. Or a half of a boneless/skinless chicken breast. As for shrimp? Four large shrimp have 22 calories. You could eat a LOT of shrimp every day if you wanted to.
As with every potential "solution" there's much to discuss. Off the top of my head, here are some objections to the foregoing:
- It's a gimmick.
- No one will do it.
- Shrimp and tuna aren't sustainable, you nitwit.
- I can't get ANY foods that are local, free-range, sustainable and organic. What are you - a twee foodie? Am I supposed to break the bank on this crackpot scheme?
- This is still WAY too expensive for most folks.
- Anyone who lives in a food desert is sh** outta luck, and lucky to be able to find a shriveled apple for sale for a buck at their local 7/11.
So are we going to let the perfect be the enemy of the good?
I'll leave it there for now. But (heavy Austrian accent) I'll be BACK!!!!