Eat Less Meat and Save More Wildlife

Just reducing the amount of meat one has in their diet can have a positive impact on our food system, the planet, and wildlife. Take Extinction Off Your Plate is a campaign to get people not to be vegetarian, just to get people to reduce their meat intake. Producing meat in the modern farming system requires a lot of energy; indeed, Stanford warns about the dangers of global meat production.

It’s easy to be vegetarian, but remember – even decreasing your meat consumption can have positive impacts on the world and your health!

Meat production is one of the main drivers of environmental degradation globally, and the crisis is rapidly growing worse. Production of beef, poultry, pork and other meats tripled between 1980 and 2010 and will likely double again by 2020. This ever-increasing meat consumption in a world of more than 7 billion people is already taking a staggering toll on wildlife, habitat, water resources, air quality and the climate. And Americans eat more meat per capita than almost anyone else. By reducing our meat consumption, we can take extinction off our plates and improve our own health along with the health of the planet.

Check it out!

Decrease Blood Pressure By Simply Changing Your Diet

I love knowledge and it’s exciting that a meta-analysis in JAMA Internal Medicine has concluded that a vegetarian diet is perfect for decreasing blood pressure!Meta-analysis of research data is the assessment of a multiple research papers related to the same issue and sometimes the meta-analysis can disprove existing assumptions, in this case the meta-analysis confirms what many already thought!

Plus, researchers found that “the effect sizes are similar to those observed with commonly recommended lifestyle modifications, such as adoption of a low-sodium diet or a weight reduction of 5 kg, and are approximately half the magnitude of those observed with pharmaceutical therapy,” they wrote in the study. A weight reduction of 5 kilograms is equivalent to about 11 pounds.

Read more at Huffington Post.

Mediterranean-Style Diet Contributes to Longer Life

For people of all ages, it’s been proven that a diet similar to what’s popular around the Mediterranean helps with fending off negative health issues. Now, new research points out that even people in they “mid-life” can benefit greatly by eating a more Mediterranean-stlye diet.

“In summary, we found that greater quality of diet at midlife was strongly associated with increased odds of good health and well-being among individuals surviving to older ages,” epidemiologist Cécilia Samieri of the French National Institute of Health and her co-authors concluded in Monday’s online Annals of Internal Medicine.

“Maintaining physical, cognitive, and mental health with aging may provide a more powerful incentive for dietary change than simply prolonging life or avoiding any single chronic disease.”

Read more.

A Tricorder To Find Out What’s In Your Food

TellSpec is a new device currently being crowd funded that tells people what’s in their food – just like a Star Trek tricorder. It uses spectrometry to analyze the food it scans to find out if there any unwanted chemicals on food. The device can also scan food to find out how many calories it has.

What is TellSpec?

TellSpec is a three-part system which includes: (1) a spectrometer scanner (2) an algorithm that exists in the cloud; and (3) an easy-to-understand interface on your smart phone. Just aim the scanner at the food and press the button until it beeps. You can scan directly or through plastic or glass. TellSpec analyzes the findings using the algorithm and sends a report to your phone telling you the allergens, chemicals, nutrients, calories, and ingredients in the food. TellSpec is a fast, simple, and easy-to-use way to learn what’s in your food. We need your help to make it smaller and manufacture it as a handheld device.

Measure Food in Exercise, Not Calories

walking
Yesterday we looked at labelling gas nozzles and today here’s good news about a better way to label food. A series of studies add up to the conclusion that if people were aware of how much walking it would take to burn off food they eat less. Calories can be confusing so by telling people how much time walking it can help people understand how much energy they are consuming.

“People who viewed the menu without nutritional information ordered a meal totaling 1,020 calories, on average, significantly more than the average 826 calories ordered by those who viewed menus that included information about walking-distance,” writes Scientific American. People who saw the menu with walking-distance info also ordered less than people who just saw calorie info.

Read more.

Now I’m going to go for a walk…

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