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During WWI, Americans were asked to give up meat on Mondays ("Meatless Mondays") in order to help out the war effort. Today, Meatless Mondays is a campaign to reduce the saturated fat intake of Americans by 15% by 2010. The campaign is run in association with the John Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.
According to the American Heart Association, the average human should only eat about 138 lbs of lean meat per year. In 2003, Americans ate 222 lbs of meat on average. That's nearly 100 lbs of excess meat. ( A high-meat diet increases the risk of cancer, heart attack and stroke. )
Meat consumption is hard on the environment. By eating no meat, you can reduce your carbon footprint by 5,000 lbs. Eating no red meat reduces your footprint by 3000 lbs. No one can force you to stop eating meat, but eating 100 lbs less meat a year would be beneficial to everyone on the planet, especially yourself.
Meatless Mondays says that by skipping meat on Mondays, you'll cut your saturated fat intake by 15%. You'll reduce your carbon footprint, possibly lose weight and lower your risk of heart disease, cancer and stroke.
