We think plants are delicious! That’s why all of our tasty organic products are vegetarian. This doesn’t mean your granola is loaded with vegetables, “vegetarian” is the practice of eating plants for sustenance, and not consuming any part of an animal as food. For those who choose not to consume dairy, eggs, or honey, Nature’s Path also makes vegan products.
People are drawn to vegetarianism by all sorts of reasons. Some of us want to reap the health benefits or do our part to reduce pollution. Others have made the switch because we want to preserve Earth's natural resources or because we've always loved animals and are ethically opposed to eating them. Today, in the United States, there are an estimated 4.9 million people who identify themselves as a vegetarian with many more moving towards a more plant-centered diet.
Why fill your plate with plants?
Your mom was right when she told you to eat your veggies – the human body can thrive on a plant-based diet! The American Dietetic Association’s 2009 position paper on vegetarian diets confirms that “appropriately planned vegetarian or vegan diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”
People who enjoy a plant-based diet also benefit from lower LDL cholesterol levels, lower blood pressure, as well as lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and some forms of cancer than non-vegetarians. In fact, vegetarian diets have even been associated with lower levels of obesity, reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and lower total mortality.
Plants are packed with nutrients, vitamins and minerals. A common misconception is that you can’t get enough protein from plants. In reality, plants have enough protein and amino acids to satisfy your body’s needs (which are 25g per day according to the World Health Organization). When you get your protein from plants, you also manage to avoid the saturated fats and dietary cholesterol found in meat protein. To help you make sure you’re ticking all the boxes for a balanced diet, check out the vegetarian food pyramid.
The animal-based food industry takes a heavy toll on the planet. According to Environmental Defense, if every American skipped one meal of chicken per week and substituted vegetarian foods instead, the carbon dioxide savings would be the same as taking more than 500,000 cars off the road!
If everyone became a vegetarian for just one day, the United States would save:
- 100 billion gallons of water
- 1.5 billion pounds of crops otherwise fed to livestock
- 70 million gallons of gas – enough to fuel all the cars in Canada and Mexico with plenty to spare
- 3 million acres of land
- 33 tons of antibiotics
- Greenhouse gas emissions equal to 1.2 million tons of carbon dioxide – as much as produced by all of France
- 3 million tons of soil erosion and $70 million in resulting economic damages
- 4.5 million tons of animal excrement
- Almost 7 tons of ammonia emissions, a major air pollutant
Moving from an animal-based to a plant-based diet is the single most powerful act we can undertake to reverse the world’s environmental pollution and resource wastage. This might sound like an exaggeration, but it’s not. It’s actually an assertion grounded in the findings of a United Nations study released in 2006.