What is 90% Vegan?

So... just  what is 90% vegan, anyway?

It's just what it sounds like.  Get at least 90% of your daily calories from plants, and no more than 10% from local, organic, free-range, sustainable animal sources.

It’s something I think every American CAN do, and should do, for some pretty obvious and simple reasons. It’s good for your:

Waistline

Wallet

And it’s also good for the

World

Not sure anyone would argue that going 90% vegan is good for one’s waistline. As a 100% vegan I lost 60+ pounds… as a newly 90% vegan, I am already re-dropping weight! You might think this is a pretty shallow reason to go 90% vegan – but if that’s what motivates you, who cares? Anyway, dropping that extra avoirdupois should be good for your health. Lower blood pressure, etc., etc. is a good thing!

As for your wallet – well, it’s certainly a no-brainer that you can save money if you’re not buying meat and dairy. While it is certainly possible to inflate your grocery bill if you aren't a careful shopper, eating at home more, cooking from fresh ingredients, and replacing expensive cuts of meat with whole grains and beans and tofu can make a big difference to your bottom line. The savings aspect of this will be the subject of many posts explaining HOW.

Finally, while it might not be immediately apparent to many that going 90% vegan can help save our planet from global climate change, in fact, it CAN.

I got this list from Mikko Alanne, who blogged about it over at Huffington Post.  You can read it here: http://tinyurl.com/yfzh3vf

1. If all Americans did not eat meat for one day a week, they would save 99.6 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions, or the equivalent of removing 46 million round trip flights between Los Angeles and New York, or taking 19.2 million cars off the road for a full year.
2. If everyone in the US did not eat meat for two days a week, they would save 199 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would have the same effect as replacing ALL household appliances in the US with energy efficient ones.
3. If all Americans did not eat meat for three days a week, they would save almost 300 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would have a greater impact on the climate than replacing all US cars with Toyota Priuses.
4. If everyone in the US did not eat meat for four days a week, they would save 398 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would be the carbon savings equivalent of cutting the use of all electricity, gas, oil, petroleum, and kerosene in the United States in half.
5. If all Americans abstained from eating meat for five days a week, they would save 498 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would result in the carbon savings equivalent of planting 13 billion trees and letting them grow for ten years.
6. If all Americans did not eat meat for six days a week, they would save nearly 600 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. This would be the equivalent of eliminating the total electricity use of all households in the United States.
7. And finally: If everyone in the United States ate a vegetarian diet for seven days, they would save around 700 megatons of greenhouse gas emissions. That would be the same as removing all the cars off the roads in the US.