A Moment to Ponder the “Reducetarian Diet”
A few days ago, I was listening to an interesting podcast
episode from Climate One focused on different perspectives of our food system
and its effect on climate change (link to listen below). What surprised me was the discussion of a
diet I had never heard of. As a
nutrition student, we hear almost every diet style out there, including the
multitudes of variations on the vegetarian/vegan lifestyle. To name a few: pesco-vegetarian,
ovo-vegetarian, lacto-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, flexitarian, and of course,
vegans. That is only part of the list,
but never had I heard of the Reducetarian
Diet. So, what is this diet and why do people follow it?
According
to the Reducetarian Foundation, a non-profit organization promoting this type
of diet, the reducetarian diet is an inclusive idea for omnivores, vegetarians,
and vegans to reduce meat and animal product consumption to improve individual
and environmental health, as well as reduce animal cruelty. The amount of reduction of animal products is
dependent on the individual’s personal preference.
According to Brian Kateman,
co-founder of The Reducetarian Foundation and author of “The Reducetarian
Solution,” other vegetarian variations like flexitarian didn’t speak to
him. In the Climate One Podcast, he
states “It seemed to me like we needed a word and a community of people to
encourage others to essentially do that, to cut back on the amount of animal
products that they consume and not necessarily worry about being perfect or
pure. If you think about it, most people eat 275 pounds of meat a year,
at least in the United States, which is an astounding number. And so if
we could encourage a large majority of the American population to cut back 10%
or 20% that would make a much bigger difference than simply encouraging a small
minority of people to go entirely vegan or vegetarian.”
Many of the changes mentioned by
Kateman and advocated by The Reducetarian Foundation include things like:
·
Meatless Mondays
·
Vegetarian on Weekdays
·
Vegetarian on Weekends
·
Vegetarian before or after 6:00pm (therefore,
dinner is different than rest of day)
·
Vegetarian/Vegan when eating out
Overall, reducetarians
utilizes whatever strategy or practice that makes sense for their daily
lifestyle. It is never an all-or-nothing
practice and there is not one way to follow the diet.
Low carbon diets and sustainable living
are personal interest of mine, and, as an omnivore, this reductetarian
lifestyle seemed feasible for me!
But what do
you think of the Reducetarian Diet? Just
another fancy name for vegetarians? Will it make enough of a difference to
human and environmental health? Or is vegan the only way to go to make the
biggest impact? Would you try one of the
strategies to reduce meat intake?
Furthermore, would you call yourself a Reducetarian if you did? Either way, it is an interesting concept to
think about! I’d love to hear what you
think, so make sure to add your thoughts in the comment section.
Learn more about it:
Listen to the Podcast Here: http://www.climateone.org/audio/climate-your-plate
Check out The Reducetarian Foundation: https://reducetarian.org
TB
References:
The Reducetarian Foundation. (2019). What We Do. Retrieved
from https://reducetarian.org/what/
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