Why is this man so happy? Because he lowered his cholesterol! I know, it's cheesy, but it's great! I never guessed 6 months ago when I became vegan that my hubby would follow down the veggie trail. In fact, this meat and potatoes boy has gone almost completely vegan too (he does indulge in the occasional cheese pizza)! And it has paid off. You see, the hubby can be deceptively unhealthy. He is skinny and he can eat a ton without gaining weight (I know, sometimes it makes me wish I was deceptively unhealthy), but he has a family history of high cholesterol. Which is why at wellness testing last year is cholesterol was...gasp...220!!!
But 9 months later (5 of it being almost vegan) he has dropped his cholesterol too...wait for it...
In case you, like me, are not a math whiz, that is 53 points!!!
Now, my dear readers, you may be asking, what does this have to do with the environment. Well, a couple of things...
1. Eating less animal products benefits the environment. The short way of explaining this is growing grain to feed animals instead of you is double the energy usage, in fact, more than that because....animals (especially cows) produce large amounts of greenhouse gas emissions. A great book on this is "In the Defense of Food."
2. When you eat less animal products and lower your cholesterol and blood pressure and waistline, you make less of an impact on the environment. You take up less space, less product, less gas, less toxic (even if life-saving) medicine, less trips to the hospital and use of machines, etc...Less, less, less! And when it comes to Mama E, less is more!
I am not jumping on the vegan soap-box (I will save that for another day), but just think about the impact that maybe cutting meat out one day a week would have. Do you think you can do it? Do you have any great veggie recipes to share? Do you have meat or no meat stories to share? Cholesterol stories to share? I wanna hear em!
And just in case you were wondering, the technician said my cholesterol reading was the lowest she had ever seen at...
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9 comments:
Wow, that's great! I'd been thinking about colesterol after reading that blueberries help lower it!
I too have a skinny hubby! We haven't talked about colesterol and such. Your post has inspired me to look into it. Thank you :)
Stopping in from SITS - thx for lieaving a comment on my blog :) And congrats to the hubby - well deserved! Looking forward to reading more posts!
Wow - Congrats on the ridiculously low cholesterol, Willo! I have a pretty tasty vegetarian enchilada recipe, but it is in NO WAY vegan, & probably not all that heart healthy once all the cheese has been added. It is really good though. :)
I am slowly moving towards a vegan diet but still indulge in an occasional sprinkle of parmesian cheese. It is interesting trying to convince the family to go along but there has been very little push back about the added fruits and veggies (they haven't had any meat except shrimp in over 2 weeks). It has made me question why I didn't try this sooner.
Thanks for stopping by newcomers! 2monkees, slowly moving towards it is GREAT! Every little bit makes a difference!
Wow, now that is impressive! It's a huge drop. And all those reasons you listed? When I was 12 and at camp, we had a future day where all resources had been used -- no electricity, no silverware, no plumbing, no heated food etc. They explained what had happened and that was the last time I ate meat ... for well over a decade.
And thank you so much for coming to visit my blog. Today has been so much fun and so lovely to see the response and fun comments. I really appreciate it. I hope you enjoyed my blog and come back to visit soon!
My husband had the exact same problem, skinny but genetic cholesterol problems. He's been Vegetarian for a year and a half, with a few eggs and cheese here and there, and has had the same results as your hubby :) Consequently, I'm a semi vegetarian by association! Though I do eat some fish, organic free range chicken and the occasional organic red meat if I feel the need. Vegetarian food is SO much tastier and better for you that I can't see why more people don't try it!
One of my favorite veg recipes is a lasagna using brown lentils and ricotta cheese. Yum!
Thank you for visiting my blog, I'm loving your posts, very though provoking!
Thanks for stopping by Michelle! Lovely to have you! Owl & Fox that lasagna sounds divine! My boys are in love with lentils and they make fake ricotta...I am going to have to try that! Thanks!
That's so inspiring! I sometimes worry that I may be a little "deceptively unhealthy" - so this totally motivates me!
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