MEATLESS.... BUT WHY??? WHY?? WHY???

When I began my search for the best diet to keep my family at our healthiest, I didn't know exactly what I would find. I kind of hoped it would be a diet with lots of chicken thighs on it because they were practically my favorite food. I didn't have them all that often but I definitely loved having them. I could've found lots of diets that would keep me at a decent weight eating these. But I was looking for the diet that would promote health and longevity. I have no interest to living till I'm 80 or 90 if I'm kept alive by lots of drugs, and sick. I began looking into what diets cause most of the leading causes of death and independently kept finding and the Western diet, or an animal protein based diet. Only one diet, or way of eating had proven itself over and over and over to be the best disease fighting way of life and it is a whole food plant-based diet. I knew that that was going to be the one for me, and I am part of a four headed monster and my family was going to have to hop aboard. 

Taking meat away from three meat loving dudes was likened (by them) to taking away my make up, my blow dryer (I have lived in LA for 25 years, but am a Long Island girl to the core, we hold tight to these things), and my running shoes. Low blow guys, but I ensured them that I would gladly give up my makeup and my blow dryer if they would consider trying to live with less meat in their lives. The running shoes were non-negotiable. 

On a quiet Saturday morning the TV started magically playing Forks over Knives on Netflix and the remote magically went missing so that 3 fellas who would basically stare at anything on a screen, found themselves getting an education on some of the why, why, why's we were going meat free or very much meat reduced for now. 

In a nutshell.... here are the reasons: 

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.Animal protein is not good for you. In fact, it's pretty darn bad for you and there is LOTS of research to back that up. Dr. T Colin Campbell who has spent 45 years researching nutrition and diet has stated that an estimate of 2/3 deaths from cancer, 9/10 deaths from heart disease, 8/10 stroke deaths, and 8/10 of the deaths attributed to prescription drug use gone wrong, could be avoided with a plant-based diet. That is 1,282,000 deaths per year. Holy "cow" right??  I am not just talking about cow here. I'm talking about all forms of animal protein… i.e. chicken, pork, dairy, fish and eggs. They all fall into animal protein category and all have been found to cause or contribute significantly illness and disease.  Of course not everyone who eats meat suffers a horrible fate, but your odds of staying healthy significantly better if you eat mostly or all plants. I will take those odds. Plus, so far I am feeling so much better eating this way! No more stomach aches, achey joints, extreme fatigue, and fogginess. I feel energetic and more awake than I have in a long time. 

If those whys aren't good enough, we can delve into animal welfare and environmental protection and those reasons abound as well. 

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