How to Cut Back on Meat

Try it before worrying that you'll die of a cheese craving

(NEWSER) - Instead of a trendy juice cleanse to start the New Year, Heather Wood Rudúlph went with a different detox diet: going vegan for a month. She shares seven lessons she learned from the experience in Sirens Magazine :

• She can cook: And so can you. Forced to stop making your staple chicken casserole over and over, you discover the joys of “culinary creativity.”
• Skip the colonic and eat veggies instead: “Eating massive portions of leafy vegetables and whole grains” led to “that ‘clean’ feeling" within just a couple of days.
• You never know what you’re going to miss: In Rudúlph’s case, she craved fish and yogurt but never meat, other dairy, or eggs.

Ghent officials, schoolkids to observe "veggie day"

(NEWSER) - In good news for Belgian cows, the city of Ghent this week begins a weekly “veggie day,” on which officials will go vegetarian, the BBC reports. The move is an effort to cut greenhouse gases, almost a fifth of which come from livestock, the UN says; the city also foresees health benefits for locals. Schoolkids will have a veggie day of their own in the fall. More»

Eat-less-meat movement gaining stride with moderation approach

(NEWSER) - Sticking to a plant-based diet without denying yourself grandma's pot roast has a name—flexitarian. And whether it's to live longer, save a buck, or because there are better meatless offerings at restaurants, a growing number of Americans are becoming part-time vegetarians, Newsweek reports. "It's not that meat is some sort of evil," one part-timer said, "It's just that we eat excessive amounts of it." More»

A butcher, hunter, and rancher discuss the ethics of eating animals

(NEWSER) - For long stretches of their lives, Nicolette Niman, Tovar Cerulli and Joshua Applestone were all vegetarians or vegans. Now, they’re a rancher, a hunter, and a butcher, respectively, who “firmly believe food from animals can be healthful, environmentally appropriate, and ethical,” they write in the Atlantic . Their stories:

• Nicolette: She became vegan “after hearing that beef was deforesting the Amazon,” but eventually “learned that animals were essential to sustainable farms.” They increase soil fertility and convert otherwise inedible vegetation and uncultivated land into food.
• Tovar: He became a vegan after listening to Buddhist teachings, but eventually “realized that all food has its costs. From habitat destruction to combines that inadvertently mince rabbits … crop production is far from harmless.” What matters, he decided, “wasn’t what we ate, but how that food came to our plates.”
• Joshua: He was a vegetarian until he met his wife and opened a meat company. “Once I saw how the meat we were selling had been raised, and met the farmers who were striving to raise animals sustainably … I realized I didn’t have a problem with meat. I had a problem with the inhumane practices of the commercial meat industry."

But skeptics take issue with Michelin Guide assessment

(NEWSER) - Japan has overtaken France as the fine dining capital of the world—at least according to the latest Michelin Guide, reports ABC News . The newly released 2012 edition of the influential guide has bestowed 29 Japanese eateries with a 3-star rating—the highest possible grade—compared with 25 in France. Japan collected a whopping total of 296 stars. More»