Kent State Interns

              Many of us try to incorporate environmentally conscience decisions into our lifestyles—bringing canvas bags to the grocery store, drinking out of reusable water bottles, or maybe you drive a hybrid.   Whatever it is, you’re contributing by helping the planet and reducing your carbon footprint.               What you may or may not know is that you can also decrease your carbon footprint through your meal choices.   The most well known strategy is to go vegetarian or vegan. However, some of us (me included!) may find it difficult to give up meat, cheese, and eggs altogether. The good news is that you don’t have to give up some of your favorite foods to eat green. So what do you do if you want to live more sustainably, eat healthy, and eat meat!   In the following post I hope to give some tips about eating more sustainably, without giving up ...

           The Mediterranean diet is based on the traditional diet of the Mediterranean region, and is very different than the typical American diet.             The Mediterranean diet is based off the pyramid system, similar to what you might have learned in grade school when the USDA used a Food Pyramid or MyPyramid to model a balanced diet. The Mediterranean diet pyramid is based off your weekly intake rather than your daily intake.   The core elements of the diet include a variety of fruits, vegetables, whole grain grains/cereals, and olive oil at each meal. Meat is not a necessary element in each meal.   In fact, meats are broken down weekly, allotting 10 meals a week with meat, and 2-4 meals with eggs. If you eat three meals a day, that would mean more than half of your meals for the week would be vegetarian!   In a typical western diet, almost all of our meals have ...