Great First Step
Congratulations, reading this is a great first step in expanding your thinking about what it means to make money-wise food choices.
Feeling confident about which foods are available and how to prepare them opens your world to a vast bounty of fresh fruits and vegetables, whole grains, and protein-rich beans, nuts and even meat-alternatives that are easily available in most mainstream grocery stores.
Government-subsidized animal-based foods, processed “convenience” foods, and junk foods may seem inexpensive, but their true cost to your health, the environment and animals far outweighs the perceived savings at the cash register.
Why Eat Vegan?
First, maximizing “whole” foods such as fresh produce and other healthy, plant-based food choices has tremendous benefits. By focusing on nutritious foods, you improve your health and help prevent many diet-related diseases that are plaguing Americans of all income levels.
Second, plant-based foods are much less resource-intensive than raising animals for food. Livestock production is a top contributor to greenhouse gas emissions and other environmental problems.
Third, by foregoing meat and other animal products, your food dollars are voting for compassion and responsibility. Your personal food choices will save hundreds, even thousands, of animals in your lifetime.
The True Cost of Unhealthy Foods
- High medical costs
- Environmental destruction
- Animal suffering
New Way of Eating
Shifting to a plant-based diet is a great opportunity to expand your horizons and try new cuisines. Ever try Ethiopian? Thai? Middle Eastern? These international cuisines are packed full of flavor and new spices as well as familiar vegetables, beans and grains. All this while being reasonably priced, filling, and delicious.
OK, so you’ve been out to new restaurants and you’ve experienced what a treat eating vegan can be. Now let’s look into eating at home. Our next section has practical ideas that don’t break the bank.
New Way of Thinking
Just as we shift our thinking about what constitutes “high costs,” we can also rethink how we look at time.
There just isn’t enough time to cook…
Food educator and vegan chef, Colleen Patrick-Goudreau, gets to the point about how we use time and some of our misperceptions around it… as quoted in VegNews Magazine:
“The most frequent complaint people make is that they don’t have time to eat and cook healthfully, but… if we have time to pack the family into the car, drive to a restaurant, wait for a table, decide what to order, wait for the food, pay the bill, and drive back home, then we have time to make a delicious, inexpensive meal at home.”