We are all bombarded daily with new studies on what we should eat, what we shouldn’t eat; or a new diet which will provide us with everlasting life. The result is you become a total health nut or, like most; you tune out and carry on with your day. On the extreme ends you have the Raw Vegan, which is a very committed lifestyle, and on the other end of the spectrum, I guess you have the Fast Food Junkie, which is probably not the best lifestyle decision one can make.
So what can you do? There is a strong movement afoot that illustrates that there are tremendous benefits of eating a “Flexible Vegetarian Diet”. The word “Flexitarian” is a combination of the words Flexible and Vegetarian. The theory is that you still get the health benefits of a vegetarian diet without the having all the rules to follow. After all, nobody likes rules, so if you crave a burger, steak, or bacon (which goes with everything by the way) go ahead, just don’t make it a regular event.
According to author and dietician Dawn Jackson Blatner, you do not have to give up on meat completely to obtain the health benefits associated with a vegetarian diet. All you need to do is eat a lot less meat. Blatner claims that people following a Flexitarian diet weigh 15% less than their carnivorous counterparts. People following this diet are also believed to have a lower rate of diabetes, cancer and heart disease. It is also claimed that people on a Flexitarian diet live 3.6 years longer than those who follow the regular diet.
Dr. Anne-Claire Vergnaud of Imperial College London in the UK and her colleagues found that people who, while consuming the same amount of calories, ate more meat gained more weight over 5 years than those who ate less meat. “Our results suggest that a decrease in meat consumption may improve weight management,” they wrote in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
The Nutburg just might be your recipe for success, in your battle to reduce your meat consumption. Filled with taste, texture and flavour, enjoy; and let us know how you liked it.
– James West, Mr. NutBurg