Below are some of the many benefits of adopting Meatless Monday.
Health
- Reduce risk of and manage chronic diseases: Eating less meat and more plant-based foods can lower your risk of chronic diseases, such as heart disease, high blood pressure, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers.
- Improve kidney health: Reducing consumption of red and processed meat and eating more healthy plant-based foods can help lead to better kidney health and better management of kidney disease and related risk factors.
- Boost immune system: A healthy plant-based diet with plenty of colorful vegetables and fruits can strengthen your immune system and may help you recover faster from illness.
- Maintain a healthy weight: Diets rich in high-fiber plant foods like beans, nuts, seeds, and vegetables and lower in meat are helpful for achieving and maintaining a healthy weight.
- Maintain a healthy gut: Eating less meat and more vegetables, whole grains, and fiber supports a healthier gut microbiome. Research shows that a healthy and varied mix of bacteria in the gut results in optimal metabolism of food, a better utilization of nutrients, healthier body weight, and possibly lower risk of chronic disease.
- Support mental health: Following a healthy, plant-based diet has been shown to improve profiles on mood scores (POMS) and the depression and anxiety stress scale (DASS).
- Meet your protein requirements: You can meet your protein needs with a variety of healthy plant-based proteins. These food choices offer protein amounts equivalent to 1 ounce of meat, poultry or fish: 1/4 cup beans (cooked), 1 egg, 1 tablespoon of peanut butter, or 1/2 ounce of nuts/seeds.
Environment
- Save water: The water footprint of all types of animal-based foods is several times larger than the water footprint of most plant-based foods with similar nutritional values. The worst-case example: Taking into account all stages of production, one kilogram of beef requires nearly 40 times as much water as the same amount of vegetables.
- Reduce greenhouse gas emissions: Raising animals produces climate-changing greenhouse gases, including methane, carbon dioxide, and nitrous oxide. The agricultural sector as a whole contributes nearly 30% of global greenhouse gases. In fact, more greenhouse gases are produced from animal production than from the transportation sector.
- Preserve land: Raising animals for food uses 30% of the Earth's land surface. To satisfy demand, the meat industry has cleared more valuable land and produced more deforestation, including rainforests.
- Protect biodiversity of animals and plants: Much of the world's deforestation is for the sake of meat production. This results in loss of habitat, which harms biodiversity. Industrial food animal production (IFAP) depends on the growing of feed grains, which uses pesticides and synthetic fertilizers. These chemicals harm biodiversity, including soil microbes, and degrade water both onsite and downstream.
- Reduce the overflow of animal waste: Eating less meat reduces animal waste from IFAP operations, which can pollute waterways and contribute to dead zones devoid of most aquatic life. Manure spills from these operations have also been implicated in disease outbreaks and have negatively impacted surrounding communities.
Food System
- Reduce antibiotic resistance: Nearly 70% of medically important antibiotics for humans are used in animals. This routine use means bacteria present in animals and in the production environment may become resistant to antibiotics, which means that infections caused by these bacteria will become difficult or impossible to treat.
- Protect rural communities: The unhygienic conditions in confined animal operations are ideal breeding grounds for bacterial and viral pathogens, which put rural residents at risk. In addition, some of the worst working conditions are in meatpacking and processing plants, and residents living near these operations have higher rates of respiratory illnesses, stress, and other sicknesses.
- Reduce post-consumer waste: A 2020 study found that meat purchased outside the home is one of the largest contributors to food waste, and that meat and seafood represented 38% of food waste, the largest percentage of any category.
- Reduce foodborne illness: Disease-causing microorganisms originating in IFAP operations can enter our food supply at various points. When animal waste contaminates water sources, for example, contaminants can be transferred to plant surfaces when crops are irrigated. The scale and speed of meat processing plants also present frequent opportunities for widespread contamination.
- Improve animal welfare: Animals raised in confined IFAP operations are subjected to overcrowding, severely restricted movement, bodily alterations without pain relief, jolting during transport, feed deprivation, early weaning, and other physical and emotional harms. Practices that induce stress can increase animals’ transmission of disease—a concern for both human and animal health.
Foodservice
- Meet sustainability goals: Meatless Monday has helped many foodservice operations meet their sustainability and wellness targets through procurement, menus, and customer engagement.
- Reduce food costs: Meat is expensive and will drive up food costs if your menu is heavy in animal-based foods. Plant-based protein foods generally cost less than meat— even specialty products like organic tofu and soy sausage.
- Inspire delicious menus: Meatless Monday can inspire culinary innovation and delicious menus with new cuisines, ingredients, and preparation methods.
- Reduce food safety risks: Preparing more dishes without meat or other animal products reduces the opportunity for cross-contamination and related pathogen transmission.
- Meet consumer demand for health: Recent food trends emphasize sustainability and responsible consumption, and consumer demand for plant-based foods continues to grow. Meatless Monday helps restaurants and foodservice providers innovate and highlight delicious plant-based menus.
Community
- Encourage climate-friendly procurement: Meatless Monday has helped cities implement their sustainability plans and reduce their greenhouse gas emissions through proclamations, procurement policies, and community initiatives.
- Shape community programs: Meatless Monday can be a community-based effort to successfully promote healthier and more sustainable diets across diverse stakeholders.
- Engage city leaders, businesses, and local organizations: Starting a Meatless Monday program in your city or community is a proven way to promote healthy and sustainable eating habits at the grassroots and municipal levels while supporting local restaurants, food purveyors, businesses, and farmers.
- Promote healthy and sustainable actions: Meatless Monday can be tailored to align with a city’s or town’s health and sustainability goals. Institutions, community groups, and local health departments can use Meatless Monday to promote plant-based eating, wellness initiatives, and environmental awareness. A Meatless Monday proclamation or resolution from a mayor or other elected official is another powerful tool.
Consumers
- Be a gateway to further change: Consumers who start with Meatless Monday more often than not make other changes, such as eating more plant-based meals at home and in restaurants and reducing the amount of meat they eat overall.
- Increase awareness of meat's role in climate and environment: Consumers who practice Meatless Monday are more aware of the social and environmental benefits of reducing meat consumption.
- Increase chances of maintaining healthy habits: Research suggests that people are more open to trying healthy behaviors at the start of the week. Monday offers a weekly opportunity to “reset” and get back on track. Studies show people who restart a healthy habit at the beginning of the week are better able to maintain progress over time.
- Save money on groceries: Consumers who practice Meatless Monday can save money on groceries. Plant-based foods like beans, lentils, and tofu typically cost less than meat, seafood and poultry.
- Simplify grocery shopping & meal prep: Vegetables don’t require time-consuming preparation or fancy techniques. In fact, the simplest cooking methods almost always yield the most delicious results. Roasting, baking, grilling, and sauteing allow the inherent flavor of the vegetable to shine.
- Broaden palate: Participating in Meatless Monday encourages consumers to expand their palates by trying a bounty of different fruits, vegetables, grains, and plant-based proteins.
