Meatless Monday

Can you commit to giving up meat for one day a week? Meatless Monday, a national public health campaign, thinks you can—and should. Meatless Monday wants to help us cut our intake of saturated fat by 15% by 2010, in line with the government’s recommendations and the American Heart Association’s guidelines. Meat is one of the primary sources of saturated fat in our diet, and Americans consume more of it than any other country in the world.

With growing evidence linking excessive amounts of saturated fat in our diet to coronary heart disease, stroke and cancer, the leading causes of death in the United States, we are encouraged to start the week on a healthy note. This means no red meat, pork or poultry. Fish is allowed, and indeed recommended. As for the rest of the week, we should eat lean meat and low fat dairy products, as well as plenty of fruits, vegetables and whole grains.

This is all sound advice. But as I discovered from my interview with Dr. Robert Lawrence of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who provides the scientific foundation of the campaign, this turns out to be a controversial message in some circles.