Healthy Hunterdon

Flexitarian Diet

Nicole Schaldone - Flexitarian Diet

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Transcript

Welcome to Healthy Hunterdon, brought to you by Hunterdon Healthcare. This program will provide health, nutrition, and fitness tips from leading professionals,

I am Nicole Schaldone, a Master’s prepared Registered Dietitian with Advanced Gastroenterology and Nutrition, a specialty practice of Hunterdon Medical Center. Today’s topic is: Flexitarian Diet.

A Flexitarian Diet is a flexible vegetarian. It’s a diet that includes meat… some meat… but primarily the focus is on including more vegetables, fruits, and whole grains in the diet… getting protein from other sources than just meat. The idea of including more vegetables and beans and other whole grains and avoiding that meat is to lower the saturated fat in your diet.

Going meatless can help you reduce your risk of chronic preventable conditions like cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and obesity. A Baltimore public school system has recently implemented Meatless Monday. Every Monday the school system has on their menu, no meat… but they include great foods including beans, vegetables, whole grains and other high protein sources from vegetable sources without having any meat.

Meals focused predominantly on meat tend to be higher in saturated fat and calories. Eating a plant based diet will help you to include more fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients. In addition, skipping meat for at least one day a week can help maintain a healthy body weight and lower your cholesterol levels. Some snacks that you could include in your flexitarian diet might be veggies dipped in humus, which makes a high protein snack, a handful of nuts with a piece of fruit, yogurt with granola… maybe make your own trail mix including nuts, raisins, cereal and some dark chocolate chips. For some meal ideas… try eggplant parmesan… or minestrone soup. Maybe you could try adding some beans to that pasta salad… or a vegetable stir-fry with tofu. Another great recipe might be for vegetarian chili.

Have fun trying some new ideas. You may find that your family won’t even notice that the meat is missing… by including whole grains, fruits and vegetables, beans, nuts, and other great vegetable sources or plant sources of protein. Make your Monday a Meatless Monday.