Less is more

After extensive researching for the past few months, I've decided to cut WAY back on my intake of animal protein. A diet rich in animal protein has been shown to negatively impact your health in many ways. It can increase your risk of: (these are just a few)

* Accelerated aging process

*Heart disease

*Cancer

*Low energy and fatigue

*Now before you get defensive about your eating habits, please understand this is a personal decision for me based on a lot of data from respected sources and credible research. I am not "anti-meat" or advising we all turn vegan overnight. I have always been a meat lover (though not as much as my husband!) and this was at first a hard decision for me. This might not be the step you want to take. But I do believe that we could all benefit from a diet that is higher in natural foods and lower in animal proteins.

I started off slowly, and just cut back on the daily amount of meat I ate. If we had spaghetti for dinner, I had a tablespoon of lean beef in my portion instead of a large scoop.

I increased my veggie and fruit consumption at meal times, and found that by eating those first, I was much less hungry for a large portion of meat.

My goal is to have 3 nights a week where meat is not served in any way at dinner. This might not seem like much, and I am extremely confident I can handle this, but my husband will take some conditioning. ;) The nights I do serve meat, it will be lean meat and in small amounts. I am not going to make meat the hulk of the meal.

If you are interested in cutting back on your animal protein consumption, I challenge you to start now! Start slowly if necessary and wean yourself off the thought and habit of meat being the main course of every meal. Eat whole foods such as veggies, sprouts, fruits, nuts, etc FIRST, then see if you are still even hungry for your animal protein. If you are, then enjoy a small portion. 

*Have any of you already taken this step? What tips can you share for fellow readers? What helped you in this process? What was the hardest thing for you to give up or cut back on?

Several sites to read if you're interested :

http://www.cnn.com/2012/03/12/health/red-meat-shorten-lifespan/index.html

Harvard study on high animal protein diets:

http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/news/press-releases/2012-releases/red-meat-cardiovascular-cancer-mortality.html

Nutritionist/amazing website!

www.kimberlysnyder.net