April 4, 2014 | SharkAdmin In addition to celebrating Earth Day at NVC on April 17, we also have some other activities scheduled to help sustain our focus on the Earth for more than a day. One of these activities is a “Veg Out” Challenge. The challenge is to replace the meat in your diet with a vegetarian meal as much or as little as you can the week of April 7-11. The idea is to introduce more vegetables into your diet and hopefully you will feel and see the benefits. Included in this challenge is also some reasons why “vegging out” is good for the environment. If taking the complete vegetarian plunge is too much for you to bite off (excuse the pun) all at once, then you may want to consider what Graham Hill, founder of TreeHugger.com, suggests, which is be a weekday vegetarian. He proposes that instead of accepting the binary solution—of being either a meat-eater or a vegetarian–try the “weekday veg.” The weekday veg is simple: Monday-Friday you eat nothing with a face, and on the weekends your choice. He advocates for eating less meat, not necessarily excluding it from your diet completely right away. In the four minute Ted Talk video, I have included, Hill makes a brief, but compelling argument citing environmental and health benefits for decreasing the factory-farmed and red meats in your diet and increasing the amount of vegetables and naturally harvested and sustainable fish. Still too radical of a suggestion? There are other options: try to “Veg Out” for just one meal in your week, or start with simply including more vegetables in your diet without even forgoing any of the meat you currently eat. The bottom line is, any way you slice it (sorry, this article is ripe with opportunities for a pun) more vegetables and fruits in your diet is good for you and for the environment. If you want more information about the “Veg Out” Challenge and some reasons why it is good for you and the environment, visit the link in the Events section of the NVC website or see the display at the library in RLC. Hope you can “veg out” a little in April! Contributed by NVC Staffer Sabrina Carey
