It’s easy. With no meat thermometers to check—and no scary feeling you’re about to poison your family with underdone chicken—vegetarian cooking is perfect for worry warts. Plus, we make it simple: Starting today, our Recipe of the Day newsletter exclusively features all-veg recipes every Monday. Sign up for it! It’s free, and we only include recipes we’d eat too. It’s more eco-friendly. Producing meat uses up to 50 times more fossil fuels than growing veggies—and up to 18,000 gallons of water per pound of beef. Plus, if you eat meat, you require four times more farmland than your meatless friends. Giving up meat for just a day scales back your resource consumption dramatically. It could save your life. Meat-heavy diets have been linked with endless complications, from lung disease to stroke. In one of the most comprehensive studies to date, published in the Archives of Internal Medicine, researchers followed more than 37,000 adults and found that just eating one vegetarian meal per day could lower the risk of dying from cancer or heart disease by as much as 20%. (Check out these 11 flat belly meatless meals.) You’ll feel sexier. After going vegetarian, some of our Prevention readers reported a disappearance of belly fat, a new consistency to their weight, and slimmer hips and legs. Sign us up! It’ll save you dough. Vegetarian meals are even cheaper than fast food, according to a test by reporters at the New York Times. They paid $28 for a dinner for four at McDonald’s; $14 for a grocery store-procured dinner of chicken, potatoes, and a salad; and just $9 for a mostly vegetarian dinner of pinto beans and rice. It’s kinder. From birth to slaughter, the life cycle of a steak ain’t pretty. Check out the 8 Cruelest Foods You Eat, complete with easy swaps for a healthier and more humane plate. Ready to get cooking? Fire up the stove with these 10 delicious veggie main dishes.
