Eating More Healthfully: Becoming an At-Home Vegan

In the spring of 2012, I watched the documentary Food, Inc. As someone who cares about her impact on the Earth, it made me realize that there are a lot of things that I could do easily to lessen my impact/footprint just by eating differently. I decided to make at least 50% of my meals vegetarian, and in the last year, I’ve found that eating vegetarian meals (that are heavy in vegetables and whole grains) is not only easy, but that also a simple way to lose weight without much effort. (Plus if every American ate a single vegetarian meal a week, it would be like taking 5 million cars off the roads in terms of carbon emissions.)

Recently, I watched another documentary, Forks Over Knives. It made me want to change my diet even further, and it made me want to tell my loved ones about the relationship between protein from meat, dairy, and eggs and heart disease and certain cancers. I actually rewatched it with my parents and we’ve all committed to try eating mostly vegan diets when inside our homes.

I want to be clear that I love meat and cheese, and lately, I’ve become quite fond of quiche. One of my favorite meals growing up was fried pork chop, Taiwanese style, and I’m not one to shy away from a good steak. But as my parents have gotten older, we’ve all started becoming more aware of health issues, and they’ve inspired me with their vigorous commitment to exercise and wellness. Looking at how easy it’s been to cut back on meat in my life just in the last 8 months, I’m looking forward to the challenge of now cutting back on cheese and eggs. Guess I’m going to have to reformulate this dish:

Pictured: Cheesy quinoa with kale