Using Meal Prep Source, you can easily find vegan meal prep near you. With vegan meals, it can sometimes be hard to come up with ideas or they can be hard make yourself if you don’t have all of the ingredients, especially if you have gotten used to eating meat for many years. This is why using a vegan meal prep company can save you time and allow you to find vegan meals that fit you requirements.
Water usage
Plant-based diets require a lot less water than those involving meat products. Those on plant-based diets are on average consuming nearly 600 gallons of water per day less than someone who eats meat and dairy products! Some experts have even made the statement that eating more meat and dairy has been the single biggest contributor for higher water consumption in the last few decades. Researchers from Finland found that if more people were to eat a plant-based diet, this would offer the potential to save enough water resources up to the amount currently required to feed 1.8 billion additional people globally! Per each ton, animal products will most likely have a larger water footprint than their plant/crop counterparts. This is also true when you look at the water footprint per calorie. An example of a meat with the highest water footprint is beef. With beef, the water footprint per gram of protein is 6 times larger than what it is for pulses!
Greenhouse gasses
A worry for us all is the affect we are having on the planet; especially when it comes to global-warming. Most of us recycle and try to drive less for this reason. However, not many people know that the choices they make with their diet can have a huge impact on their carbon footprint. According to the UN’s Food and Agricultural Organization, meat and dairy specifically account for around 14.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions! Whereas plant-based foods have a much smaller carbon footprints compared to animal products. Some studies have found that on average, emissions from plant-based foods are 10 to 50 times smaller than those from animal products. If a higher percentage of people were to adopt a plant-based diet, we would drastically reduce the negative affect we have on the planet; yet another amazing benefit for adopting a plant-based diet and ordering vegan meal prep.
Land usage
We need a lot of space for animal agriculture, much more than we need to grow crops. This has lead to mass deforestation to create space to raise animals for human consumption. As aforementioned, when we cut down tropical forest, this causes the release of long-held stores of carbon. Which has accounted for around 8% of global greenhouse gas emissions. There have been a plethora of studies that demonstrate if you were to choose a plant-based diet, you can help decrease land requirements. Studies have also found that up to 55% of deforestation can be decreased by reducing the consumption of animal products or completely switching to a plant based diet which is my professional recommendation. It has been found that plant-based agriculture uses 115 million acres less land another benefit for us all to choose a plant based diet. A scary statistic is that 36% of the world’s crop calories are fed to animals for human consumption. When we consider how many humans are living under the poverty line or starving in the world, these crops could just as easily be fed to those in need rather than to animals for those that do not want to live on a plant-based diet.
There are also a few misconceptions when it comes to a plant-based diet. Some believe it is hard to get adequate protein, this however could not be further from the truth. If you were to eat your daily recommended calories and had a varied diet with high protein foods such as beans or pulses, then it would be very hard for you not to hit your daily recommend protein intake. Furthermore, a lot of people say that a plant-based diet is too expensive. When you look at foods by weight, it is actually a lot cheaper to go plant-based. Examples of this are: rice, potatoes, pasta, beans; the list goes on and these foods will allow you to have a perfectly healthy diet with all of your nutrition you need (although we always recommend to take multivitamins especially those containing B12 as it has been found those on a plant-based diet can be deficient in this).
Health benefits
Cutting out animal products will allow you to live a cholesterol free diet, as this can only be found in animal products. Cholesterol has been found to be a common contributor to heart disease, which is the number one killer of humans world wide.
Each year, around 17 million people die from coronary heart disease. This number is only growing as more peoples are implementing a more “western diet,” which is increasing obesity and bad cholesterol (also known as LDL cholesterol). This is unfortunately causing death and huge costs for countries looking after those suffering with these issues. The only known deterrent for this dreadful disease is your day to day diet.
This is where a vegan diet can help, many vegan foods have properties that can help combat heart disease. For example cashews contain an amazing mixture of: antioxidants, protein, unsaturated fatty acids, fibre and vitamins/minerals. This mixture has heart protective characteristics and also anti-inflammatory properties. A side effect of these, particularly the unsaturated fatty acids is lower LDL (bad) cholesterol and in some studies it has even been found to heighten HDL (good) cholesterol. A study carried out by Damavandi et al. had individuals with type 2 diabetes consume 10% of their daily calories from cashew nuts, with the results providing the aforementioned results. A low LDL to HDL ratio is usually seen as an indicator of positive heart health which can help prevent heart disease.
All of the factors we have mentioned above is why we recommend a plant-based diet for those looking to reduce their environmental impact. So take a look at our vegan meal prep category to find the right meal prep to find your dietary and lifestyle needs! If you want to take a first step before going completely vegan, you can check out our vegetarian meal prep category as well as our other categories.
[…] What we eat influences how we feel. This applies not only to body image, but also to our mental well-being. Northwest Primary Care shares that foods like leafy greens, healthy fats, nuts, and berries all affect our body’s chemistry in positive ways that can decrease anxiety. Sugars, trans fats, and processed foods can do the opposite. So be intentional about swapping out a few of these mood killers for mood enhancers. Start with a quick and easy breakfast change, or experiment with some vegan meals. […]