Congratulations if you get the MFM newsletter … reading it is changing your life! The simple act of tracking your eyeballs over the words in our monthly e-missive means you’re more likely to be going way beyond a Meat Free Monday.
New research has found that being part of MFM and reading an online newsletter – which you may well have been redirected from today – gives a significant boost to your mission to create a healthier planet and lifestyle. In fact, it means you are 15 times more likely also to be enjoying a Meat Free Tuesday, and/or Wednesday, and/or Thursday …
The research was carried out by Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, in Baltimore, Maryland, and the US organisation Meatless Monday, and set out to discover whether engaging with the campaign for one meat free day a week led to more environment-aware eating during the rest of the week. And the answer was a deliciously resounding: yes!
Based on a survey of 1,172 respondents, the study looked into whether Americans involved with Meatless Monday were making other changes to their diets, such as eating less meat at other times, ditching meat entirely, trying more meat free recipes at home or choosing more meat free meals when eating out.
It turns out that Meatless Monday participants are 15 times more likely than non-participants to be meat free on at least one other day of the week as well, three times more likely to be vegetarian or vegan, three times more likely to order veggie meals when at a restaurant, and five times more likely to use meat free recipes at home.
The findings chime with a study by Meat Free Monday and Brighton and Sussex Medical School in 2021 that found meat eaters who stick with MFM for the long term are more likely to see their diets change for the greener. A fifth of people who were with us for three to five years had cut out meat entirely. A third were fully veggie or vegan by the five-year mark.
“Meatless Monday could be used as part of a multi-pronged strategy to promote healthy and sustainable diets, offering a small-step approach that may lead to beneficial dietary changes for both people and the planet,” the Johns Hopkins research concludes.
To which we can only add: for a greener, happier, healthier world, keep enjoying a Meat Free Monday and keep reading. Isn’t it great to know that by taking this one small step for yourself and the planet, the rest starts falling into place?