Love Bacon AND Animals? 'Reducetarianism' May Be For You

What do you call a vegetarian who sometimes eats bacon? "Regular old failure" is one term that might come to mind, given that some 80 percent of self-identified vegetarians eventually go back to including meat in their diets, according to a 2014 study. Brian Kateman has a more positive spin. And he has a plan, to help folks who'd like to reap the benefits of vegetarianism -- like better health, improving the environment and reducing animal cruelty -- without entirely giving up their pork. It's called reducetarianism, and it's got an attendant hashtag -- #lessmeat -- that basically says it all. "Part of the problem with the vegan and vegetarian messaging is that it resonates with many people as an all-or-nothing commitment, that the only way to contribute to the environmental, animal welfare and health movement is to completely eliminate meat from a diet," says Kateman, who debuted reducetarianism with a Tedx talk late last year, along with a fully-funded Indiegogo campaign. "The most effective question we can ask is not how can we increase the amount of vegetarians and vegans," he says, "but rather, how can we reduce the amount of meat consumed?" The idea's gotten some good press already. But if the term reducetarian hasn't taken widespread hold quite yet, it's still great timing: Periodic meatlessness is trendy enough that Beyonce publicly goes without sometimes, while vegan and vegetarian food is becoming easier to get every day -- not to mention tastier, if som...
Source: Healthy Living - The Huffington Post - Category: Consumer Health News Source Type: news