Plenty of information on plant based diet and the Climate and some great links too. Not sure if you can sign up now that it is in progress, but this was delivered to my email. I will try to post daily, but may miss some. See if you can still sign up.
Welcome to Day 4 of the Global
15 Day Plant-Rich Diet Challenge!
Week 1 Breakfast Challenge – Eat a plant-based breakfast!
Tip of the week: For your coffee, try a plant milk (like oat, soy, coconut, etc.) instead of dairy. Check out the Fact for the Day below to learn about how dairy production and processing have a major environmental impact.
Plant-Based Recipe of the Day Breakfast Quiche
This combination of peppers, beans, guacamole and salsa hits the spot. Perfect for a quick, easy meal that looks impressive to boot.
- How-to Video
- Recipe
- Prep Time: 25 Minutes
- Cook Time: 50 Minutes
- Total Time: 75 Minutes
- Servings: 8
Fact for the Day: Dairy’s Role in Climate Change
Dairy cows are a major player in accelerating the rate at which our climate is changing and posing health hazards to communities around the farms. An article by Switch 4 Good lists the many issues with how the large scale dairy industry breeds cows and processes milk. For example:
- 1,000 gallons of water is required to produce 1 gallon of cows’ milk.
- 100 calories of cattle feed only produces 40 calories of milk.
- Waste from a dairy farm of 2,500 cows is equivalent to waste from a city of 411,000 people, or 90 million pounds a year.
- Manure lagoons can pollute the air and devastate surrounding communities. Manure also contains two major pollutants—ammonia and hydrogen sulfide—that irritate the respiratory system and can lead to health complications.
Read the full report here.
Some documentaries that address this topic are: Cowspiracy, A Cow’s Life, The Milk System, and Milked. Warning: Some disturbing images of animal treatment
Bonus Tip: Living Without Dairy Products
Some people get excited about experimenting with plant-rich diets but feel that they just can’t let go of dairy, including milk, butter, yogurt and ESPECIALLY cheese.
If this is you, we’ve got great news for you: you don’t have to give up that dairy experience at all because there are now a plethora of delicious non-dairy milk, butter, yogurt and cheese alternatives. These products are made from a variety of plant-based ingredients, including soybeans, flax seeds, oats, coconut, cashews, almonds, rice, vegetable oils and even peas. Most mainstream grocery stores carry a selection.
The other great news is that there are all kinds of easy and delicious plant-based recipes that give you that creamy cheesy and creamy sweet experience, such as
| cashew cream | vegan mac ‘n cheese perfection |
| vegan cheese sauce | vegan coconut cream frosting |
| vegan melty cheddar cheese sauce | 5-minute vegan whipped cream. |
| vegan garlic alfredo sauce |
Here are two fun videos showing you how to make two different versions of vegan nacho cheese:
- (4 minutes) How to Make the Best Vegan Nacho Cheese by Make It Dairy Free – This is a great website for Dairy-Free recipes.
- (2 minutes) Vegan Nacho Cheese – Cheap Easy Vegan by The Happy Pear.
Now, about that cheese “addiction”… it’s actually real. Cheese is mildly-addictive due to compounds called casomorphins that are released when we digest casein, the primary protein in dairy products. Casomorphins are morphine-like compounds that attach to the very same receptors in our brains as morphine, heroine or any other narcotic. The brain responds by sending out feelings of pleasure and reward which keep us hooked on those cheesy foods.
Here’s a 3-minute video,where Dr. Neal Barnard from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine helps us understand the impact of cheese on our health. If you’d like to learn more about cheese and especially its addictive quality, click HERE for a Podcast where Dr. Barnard describes “The Cheese Trap” in detail.
And here’s a great quick-read in Forbes titled “This is Your Brain on Cheese.”
Speaker Series Day 4 – Kuntal Joisher
Moving Mountains: The Vegan Way
Kuntal is the first vegan mountaineer to have scaled Mt. Everest – twice! He is a passionate climber, dauntless risk-taker, and vegan champion. His expeditions to dangerous mountains are driven by a profound mission.
In this energetic and inspirational presentation, Kuntal demonstrates that compromising one’s ethics is not needed to reach one’s highest goals.
That’s it for Day 4! Looking forward to seeing you tomorrow!
The ESRAG Plant-Rich Diet Task Force
(P.S. Please feel free to contact us at any time with questions and/or comments.)
This Task Force resides under the Environmental Sustainability Rotary Action Group (ESRAG) and operates in accordance with Rotary International policy, but is not an agency of, nor controlled by, Rotary International.