Meat, we eat it for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. More and more people are waking up to the benefits of reducing their meat consumption and the sheer amount that they consume.
Whether to improve their overall health, reduce the amount that they spend on their food shopping, to the environmental impact that eating meat can have. By discovering how to reduce your meat consumption, you can create a positive effect on your diet, wallet, but also the environment.
A staple ingredient within our diets, regardless of your intentions, cutting down on your meat consumption can be a challenge for many. This is where we can help. We have put together 10 simple steps that you can follow to reduce your meat intake today.
Why should we reduce meat consumption?
If you have yet to feel motivated about why you should reduce your meat consumption, then let us educate you on some key facts that can help you to take those first steps.
One of the biggest influences and motivation for those wanting to reduce their meat intake and that is the benefits that it has on the environment. A staple feature in diets all around the world, the environmental impact that raising livestock has on the environment is massive. Releasing many gas emissions into the atmosphere, the amount of gasses contributes to more than that of cars and other vehicles.
Along with much-needed health benefits for the environment, a lower amount of meat within our diets can benefit our health too. Even the smallest of steps and the allocation of meat-free days can do wonders to reduce your intake of saturated fat and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer from developing.
With multiple benefits not just for our personal well being, but also that of the environment around us, leave a legacy, and discover our simple steps on how to reduce meat consumption today.
How to reduce your meat consumption:
#1 Start Small
What may appear a daunting and terrifying task, start reducing your meat consumption by starting small. Consider meat-free Mondays. The perfect stepping stone, this simple step can prepare you and give you valuable insight on how tasty and amazing going meat-free can be.
#2 Maintain Your Protein Intake
One mistake that many people make when going meat-free and that is to forget the need for protein within their diet. By ensuring that you are featuring ingredients full of healthy fats such as lentils and almonds, you can ensure that you are feeding and nurturing your body with the required protein.
Protein is essential for the body, helping cells and body muscles to repair from everyday wear and tear and ensure that you remain in good health.
#3 Buy A Meat-Free Cookbook
It can feel daunting cooking a meat-free dish from scratch for the first time. What do you cook? How do you go about cooking it? This sudden loss of creativity when it comes to dinner times can be remedied with the addition of a vegetable free cookbook.
Taking the hard work out of choosing what to cook for dinner and even enlighten you with dishes and ingredients that you otherwise would never have plucked up the courage to try.
#4 Make a Plan
Although the plan may be to discover how to reduce meat consumption, diving straight in and removing all evidence of meat from your diet is never a good idea. By taking the time to put together a plan and by putting pen to paper, you can plan your weekly dinners and see where you can slowly remove meat from the recipe.
Instead of ripping meat from your diet, by slowing easing it out, you can remove risk of cravings rearing in the future and risk of failure with your new meat free diet.
This new way of planning your meals can also ensure that your nightly dinners are prepared in advance and can save you time by already knowing what you are eating.
#5 Educate yourself
Before you can master learning how to reduce meat consumption, educating yourself on the true effects of meat is recommended.
If you are planning to reduce meat to benefit the health of the planet, learning the true footprint of the meat industry can give you the true facts, equipping you with a new found motivation.
Motivation that you can use to propel you further within your new meat free lifestyle.
With many books looking into the benefits of reducing and living a meat free lifestyle, educating yourself is advised for anyone considering altering their diet.
#6 Substitute your Favourite Foods
Are there certain foods that you cannot live without? Make a compromise and consider substituting your favourite foods with a meat free alternative. With alternatives available for a wide range of different ingredients, you will amaze yourself at what you can find and how good some of these alternatives are.
With meat free burgers, sausage rolls, mince and much more, you can continue enjoying your favourite dishes by looking at the substitutes that are available.
#7 Ration your Use of Meat
When learning how to reduce meat consumption, you may find times when the addition of meat is warranted and can improve and enhance the flavours within the dish. When these circumstances arise, the inclusion of meat should not be shrugged off.
By rationing the use of meat and adding it to dishes when required, you can continue to enjoy the same delicious, slow-cooked tender dishes, but with a fraction of the guilt.
#8 Add meaty flavours to dishes
This top tip is recommended to those meat eaters not quite ready to make the switch and completely remove meat from their diet. By adding meaty flavours to dishes in the form of soy sauce, mushrooms and textured ingredients like aubergines.
Without realizing you can calm those meat cravings and allow you to enjoy the many benefits of eating a meat-free diet.
#9 Eat your calories
You may be wondering, what does eating your daily allowance of calories have to do with going meat free? Well, by ensuring that you eat your calories you can keep those pesky meat cravings at bay. When following a vegan and meat-free diet, your meals will contain less calories and result in weight loss, along with lower energy levels. By ensuring that you are eating your calories, you can keep your body optimized and able to function to its full potential, keeping tiredness and cravings at a low, so you can get on with your day.
#10 Have fun
The final of our top tips on how to reduce meat consumption and that is to have fun with it.
Going meat-free will not be easy. You are changing your lifestyle and diet in small steps and consequently, your body will crave meat and protein that you will be lacking. To ensure that you remain on the road to success, by having fun with it and being creative with your foods, you can keep motivation high and stick to your new goal.
Try experimenting with different ingredients and flavours, you never know, you might discover a delicious dish that you would never have experienced.
Conclusion
Going meat free regardless of your motivation can be a hard and trying time. This change in your diet can result in many positive effects. From a new energised you, to a lower carbon footprint, discovering where to start when it comes to reducing meat consumption can seem challenging.
By following these ten top tips on how to reduce meat consumption, you are that one step closer to cutting meat from your diet and banishing those pesky meat cravings once and for all.
Have you given up meat from your diet and do you have any tips for fellow readers about to embark on this adventure for themselves? Comment below and share your first hand experience today.