A simple shift that saves money & promotes health

Everyone talks about how expensive it is to eat healthy, but somewhere along my journey I discovered some research that led to changes in how we eat that slashed our food budget.  The result was that we could afford to eat better quality foods!  What did we do, you ask?

We cut our portion sizes.  Especially the portions of our meat!!  Culturally, we eat a LOT of animal protein; and there is plenty of research showing that increased animal protein are connected to all manner of health issues; and red meat connected to premature death.  Even Harvard’s chair of nutrition at their School of Public Health (and a staunch advocate of meat eating) had to take pause at the data and make a public statement.  Here is the article–I love the points he raises about flaws in the data, too.  There are also plenty of articles pointing out the flaws in these studies, like this one noting the good and the bad of The China Study.

During my training, I studied over 100 different eating regimens and heard lectures from the likes of Dr. Dean Ornish, Dr. T. Colin Campbell, Dr. Mark Hyman, Dr. Andrew Weil, Dr. Walter Willett… the list goes on.  They don’t all agree on how to eat, but you find some things that everyone DOES agree on (see my previous newsletter on what these are).  One of the things everyone agrees on is: more veggies, less meat.

So my family cut their meat intake significantly and started varying the types of animal protein we eat to include a little more fish and chicken.  Animal protein is generally less than 25% of what is on our plate as opposed to half of it.  This cut our meat intake so much that I could go from buying feed-lot meat from the grocery store (at no more than $1.99/lb–my stealth shopping limit for any kind of boneless meat) to buying pasture-raised and pasture-finished animal meat from a farmer using humane and organic methods and pay nearly the same amount of money.

This also challenged us to fill the rest of our plate with other stuff… like vegetables.  This fall, we are dedicating ourselves to Meatless Mondays (although I’m not sure it will always be a Monday) and we have already transitioned to eating more soups with salad for a meal as the winter draws near.

Are you ready for some change?  Need some guidance? Let’s talk!  Whether it be one-on-one coaching, group coaching or a distance program–let me know what you need and I’ll tell you what I have to help. It doesn’t cost anything to find out!