Being a flexitarian or following a flexitarian diet is becoming the solution that many people were looking for to be able to contribute their grain of sand to the environment without the need to make radical changes in their diet and promoting a simple lifestyle to maintain.
What is the flexitarian diet?
The flexitarian diet, as its name has indicated, combines eating a vegetarian diet but with the addition that it allows some meat and fish per week.
On a daily basis, practically everything a flexitarian is going to eat is traced to what a vegetarian eats : vegetables, legumes, fruits, cereals, cheese and eggs, but it is up to the flexitarian to decide that reduced amount of meat and fish keep in their diet. There is no exact amount stipulated by its creator, Dawn Jackson Blatner.
Why does the flexitarian diet exist?
The flexitarian diet is presented as a solution to the dietary change involved in becoming a vegetarian, especially if you have eaten meat and fish throughout your life. This change is a barrier for many, and the flexitarian diet allows breaking this barrier with a first contact with the restriction of meat and fish in a simple way.
Many people consider that the flexitarian diet facilitates the transition to becoming vegetarian, thus being a very interesting option to consider if you are not currently able to follow a vegetarian diet but at some point you would like to be.
How does becoming a Flexitarian help the planet?
It is important to be clear that there is nothing wrong with meat. It is tasty, healthy and has a lot of nutritional properties that are very convenient for those of us who want to get in shape.
The problem is in your production system. The meat industry is one of the most polluting for the environment, since it causes up to 18% of total greenhouse gases .
This happens due to deforestation caused by the cattle industry to obtain land where it can be grazed. These lands are treated with harmful fertilizers, worsening the situation. Beef is the type of meat that requires the most resources and damages the most. In contrast, the production of vegetables or potatoes causes 5 times less greenhouse gases.
If you decide to become a flexitarian, you do your bit by positioning yourself against this production system that is so harmful to the environment. If many people were flexitarians, global consumption would be impacted and producers would be forced to look for less polluting alternatives .
Benefits of the flexitarian diet?
- Increase the range of options available to eat out. While most restaurants are adopting vegetarian options on their menus, not all have been updated yet.
- It allows you to go out to eat with people who do not follow this diet without any inconvenience for you or them. For this reason, for many it is more of a lifestyle than a diet.
- You can eat meat without the guilt a vegan or vegetarian would suffer if they did the same.
- It serves as a stepping stone for those who one day want to be vegetarian.
- Leaving aside its moral benefits and for the environment, it is a very healthy option since the consumption of vegetables, fruits and cereals is very high, and it also encourages people to stop consuming processed foods.
What you need to keep in mind if you decide to become a Flexitarian:
- Although the consumption of meat is positive and it is allowed, you must take the same nutritional precautions as a vegetarian. We must control the consumption of Vitamin B12, zinc, iron, calcium and Omega 3 acids, since it is easy for us to have a deficiency in some of them due to the prolonged reduction of meat .
- If you decide to be a flexitarian, you are not going to save the planet all at once, but you have to consider it as a positive habit on your part that may end up changing the current state of the planet in the long term.
Are you flexitarian or are you following the flexitarian diet? Tell in the comments how you carry it, so you will help the undecided to make a decision.
No comments:
Post a Comment