How You Eat Affects the Earth’s Future

Here is a new perspective: a recent ecological study found if populations switched from omnivore diets to either Mediterranean, pescatarian (no meat except fish) or vegetarian diets, it could improve life span, reduce diabetes by 25%, cancer by 10% and heart disease by 20%. Furthermore, food production greenhouse gas emissions would reduce in amounts equal…

Eating Plant Based Extends Your Life and the Planet’s

Researchers at Loma Linda University are providing an environmental incentive to going vegetarian. Compared to non-vegetarian diets, a plant-based diet required 30% less greenhouse gas production. Factory farming approaches to meat production take more energy and produce more waste than plant farming. In addition, researchers found mortality rates for vegetarians were 20% lower than non-vegetarians.…

Why Low Fat Diets Seldom Prevent Heart Attacks

While low fat diets can reduce cholesterol, they're less effective in reducing heart attack risk. New meta analysis of diet and heart disease research from the past 50 years reveals it takes a diet overhaul. Changing the whole diet to something like the Mediterranean diet (lots of fruit and veggies, legumes, and whole grains) has…

Recommended Resource: Vegetarian Infants

Many vegetarian mothers and fathers wonder if a vegetarian diet is adequate for their infant? Vegetarian Infants, a free resource from the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics provides guidelines for vegetarian parents in making healthy choices for their infant. Supplements for mom and baby, guidelines for choosing a formula, and when to introduce solid foods…

Vegetarians and Choline

Can a vegetarian diet provide sufficient choline? This nutrient is found in cell membranes, and is necessary for nerve function, works with folic acid during pregnancy to aid proper development of the infant's nervous system, and supports good liver function. A balanced vegetarian diet containing lots of whole foods will ensure enough choline, as it…

Vegetarian Diet and Dietary Fiber Lowers Risk of Diverticular Disease

A British study of vegetarians and non-vegetarians found that vegetarians have a 31% lower risk of developing diverticular disease and in those consuming greater than 25.5 grams of dietary fiber had 41% less risk compared with those consuming less than 14 grams. Death rates from diverticular disease was 4.4% in meat eaters versus 3% in the…

Different Kinds of Gluttony

Thomas Aquinas, one of the greatest medieval philosophers, recognized that gluttony involved more than eating too much. He developed a list of other ways in which a person might “abuse” food to the point of gluttony. Here are the different ways in which a person can be gluttonous.