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For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

sciencedaily.com

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Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#21

Post by neltnerb »

AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #20
yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly. As a start, just cook more veggies and load up your plate with them. Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc., can be amazing. You can also substitute less-bad meats (turkey burgers instead of cow, etc.) or try out some of the veg. substitutes.

Oh yeah, adding a fried egg to blanched spinach and quinoa is also very filling. If you're willing to eat eggs they can be extremely versatile with vegetables.

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#22

Post by danShumway »

AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #20
yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly. As a start, just cook more veggies and load up your plate with them. Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc., can be amazing. You can also substitute less-bad meats (turkey burgers instead of cow, etc.) or try out some of the veg. substitutes.

Going slowly would be my recommendation as well. I transitioned to lacto-ovo vegetarian over the course of somewhere between 2-3 years. First was red meat, then poultry, and then fish. Even there, I had tiny goals -- I started with, "I won't buy this at a supermarket, but I'll eat it if I'm offered, or at a restaurant."

I'm also a really picky eater, and it took about that amount of time for my palette to start to change, to the point where I now really enjoy salads, mushrooms, tofu, and well-cooked veggies.

Changing a pallet is hard, it's OK to do it gradually, and it's OK to experiment and find setups that work for just you. I'm still working on softer veggies like baked beans; everyone says they're really healthy, but I saute about 90% of the veggies I eat. There's something about steamed or boiled veggies that just grosses me out.

But there were other foods I thought I'd never like before, and it's been really interesting especially over the last 4-5 months to go back and try foods that I dismissed before and discover that I suddenly like them a lot more.

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#23

Post by mping »

yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

Also consider that your taste buds adapt, after a while going veggie you may find traditional cuisine too much fat or salty

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#24

Post by fpgaminer »

neltnerb wrote: post #19
SECProto wrote: post #16

The biggest takeaway I get from the article is that the average annual food-sourced CO2 emissions is equivalent to driving 6000km. Average car owners in North America do quite a bit more than that annually (and likely in a vehicle that produces much more CO2 per km than the europe-based study would use)

Oh wow, I just did the calculation myself (3.22 trillion miles and 330 million people) to see the 9800 miles per capita driven in the USA. What a waste. I hope that at least most of it is long haul trucking or something with personal value like a vacation, rather than just commuting.

The average American commute takes 26.9 minutes: https://www.npr.org/2018/09/20/650061560/stuck-in-traffic-yo...

9800 per capita should be completely unsurprising to any American. If all you did was drive to work, it'd be a mere 40 miles per workday (5 days a week, 50 weeks).

Non-Americans might be surprised about it. But let me be clear: driving is the backbone of American society. Always has been. The classic video game Oregon Trail is about Americans making one long commute across the entire country, so they could find better jobs. Which honestly explains a lot about Californians: our ancestors traveled the whole of the United States to get here, what's a short 2 hour commute to work on the 405 every day?

Our country is HUGE, almost all of it is habitable, and we have a sprawling road system. We have the option to work where it's most profitable, and live where it's most comfortable. And boy do we take advantage of that.

Good or bad, that's the U.S., so I hope people aren't too surprised when they learn that we've been burning a lot of gasoline in our cars. And also perhaps why we have such a pro-oil/coal culture.

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#25

Post by Fnoord »

AgentOrange1234 wrote: post #20
yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly. As a start, just cook more veggies and load up your plate with them. Roasted broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, etc., can be amazing. You can also substitute less-bad meats (turkey burgers instead of cow, etc.) or try out some of the veg. substitutes.

> Cold turkey could be hard. Try transitioning slowly

Aim for reducetarian and go with the flow. Experiment, and think in terms of possibilities; not limitations. That being said, artificial restrictions can aid as extrinsic motivation, stimulating you to experiment. It could also lead you to conclude that it is too (e.g. boring), thereby giving up, while the reason is that you did not put in enough thought, time, and -ultimately- effort.

For no particular specific good reason (apart from having lived as full-time vegetarian for ~10 years, vegan ~2 years and reducetarian for another ~10) I can recommend the book Plenty by Yotam Ottolenghi. [1]

[1] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8086216-plenty

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#26

Post by WalterSear »

yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

https://www.amazon.com/BOSH-Simple-Recipes-Amazing-Plants/dp...

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#27

Post by mytailorisrich »

hacknat wrote: post #2

Makes sense, cows are bad for the environment, no matter how far away they live from you.

Cows are not bad for the environment. In fact cows can be fed waste products from cereal production (straw), or can graze on land not used for agriculture (sheep are even better for that), which make them useful to squeeze food out of land.

Intensive breeding at larger scale has an environmental impact, same as all human activities at large scale. And eating too much meat may not be great for health.

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#28

Post by poloniculmov »

yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

Indian and Thai food is amazing. They might not be strict vegetarian as they still use fish sauce or ghee, but it's doable.

Re: For a lower climate footprint, vegetarian diet beats local

#29

Post by john61 »

yummybear wrote: post #11

As a cooking enthusiast I struggle with finding vegetarian recipes that are appealing to me, my wife and kids, even if we’d like to eat more vegetables. As a “carnivore” or at least omnivore, most dishes feel like they’re either missing some part (i.e. “dinner is just a salad”) or trying to imitate a meat product.

In my town there are excellent vegetarian restaurants. Great inspiration and ideas for self cooking.
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