People choose a plant-based diet for a variety of reasons, apart from the most common “religious vegetarians”, people also go for a plant-based diet due to environmental, health and animal welfare reasons.

Religion

Religious vegetarians span across the five vegetarian categories mentioned above. Specific to Buddhist vegetarians, food consumed should be free of garlic, green onions, scallions, leeks, and asafoetida.

Environment

One of the main causes of the climate change crisis is the development of factory farming, the process of producing meat generates large amount of greenhouse gases. Therefore, many vegetarians are concerned with the Earth’s well-being, they believe traditional agriculture has less of an ecological impact than animal agriculture. That’s why Green Monday encourages people to adopt plant-based diets at least once a week in order to positively contribute to the sustainable development of our planet. Each person who takes steps to adopt any version of a plant-based diet, contributes greatly in reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Health 

The most common vegetarian dish ingredients are grains, vegetables, fruits, beans and nuts. All of which generally are high in nutritional value and rich in vitamins, minerals, fiber and healthy fats. Moreover, studies have shown that the overall calorie intake of vegetarians is lower than meat eaters, meaning that vegetarians are generally at lower risk of obesity. Adopting a plant-based diet can also reduce health risks such as cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Therefore, many people have started choosing a plant-based diet more often for health reasons.

Animal Welfare

People who choose to adopt a plant-based diet because of animal welfare focus more on promoting animal rights and prohibiting the killing and abuse of animals in the meat and dairy industry.

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