The impact of our choices

What motivates you to eat a plant-based diet?

People generally want to switch to this way of eating for one or more of the following reasons:

The health benefits.
To help with climate change.
So animals don’t have to suffer.

Here’s what I’ve noticed: The people who hold all three of these reasons close to their hearts because they align with their values are the people who have the easiest time sticking to this way of eating.

For all the positive impacts a plant-based diet has on an individual, societal, and global level, we do not live in a world that makes it easy to eat this way.

Navigating a plant-based diet can be challenging because of social norms, food inequality and access, limited education and support, current food systems, misconceptions about healthy eating, systemic racism and discrimination, the addictive nature of fast food, and the influence of capitalism.

Basically, most people have to really want to eat plant-based in order to make it happen for themselves long-term. Because of this, the more reasons you have to eat this way, the more likely you are to figure it out and stick with it.

If you’re doing it primarily for your health, you may eat the occasional burger because having a burger every so often probably won’t land you in the hospital.

If you’re doing it for your health and the health of the planet, you may think twice about that burger because you know the startling contribution beef production has on greenhouse gas emissions.

If you’re doing it for your health and the health of the planet and so animals don’t have to suffer, you would skip the burger because you refuse to contribute to factory farming or eating animals.

If you want to stay motivated to eat plant-based, I recommend educating yourself in the following areas:

1. How a plant-based diet can improve human health
2. How food production contributes to climate change
3. The horrors of factory farming

I know these topics can be heavy.

• On the health front, roughly one out of every ten adults in the U.S. has type 2 diabetes, and about 39% of American adults are considered obese.
• On the climate front, take the sheer devastation in the southeastern United States following Hurricane Helene last week.
• On the animal front, the inhumane practices of factory farming result in literally billions of animals every year being killed, with countless others subjected to cruel procedures such as castration, tail docking, and debeaking with no anesthesia, along with confinement in overcrowded and unsanitary conditions that often lead to severe pain and constant health problems. “Free range” and “organic” animal products are often just as bad.

Even though it can be difficult to think about this stuff, I believe most humans are inherently empathetic, caring, compassionate, and truly want a better world.

We may not all be in a position, or have the desire, to tackle the obesity epidemic, live off grid, or lead the way in dismantling factory farms, but we can choose what we put in our mouths every day and why.

The more we understand how powerful our food choices are, the more reasons we’ll have to eat plant-based and the easier it will be, even when it’s not.

When you’re ready to learn more about the impact of your food choices, we’ve gathered together a list of resources. Check them out here.

Molly