Episode 83
[FOCUS] Vegetarian Diet To Help Our Carbon Problem
Episode Summary: This episode is an excerpt from a past episode on flexitarian and vegetarian diet to help curb our carbon problem
After explaining how carbon emission is linked to meat consumption, Jenn and Leekei went on to discuss the environmental benefits of a vegetarian or flexitarian diet and how to implement gradually small changes in our daily eating habits.
At the end of their conversation, Jenn shared with Leekei an easy recipe to make oat milk quickly at home and with a relatively low cost.
Listen to the full episode here and the Oat Milk Recipe
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Featuring Carbon Almanac Contributors Jenn Swanson and Olabanji Stephen
From Langley in British Columbia, Canada, Jenn is a Minister, Coach, Writer and Community Connector, helping people help themselves.
Leekei is a fashion business founder, a business coach, an international development expert and a podcaster from Paris, France.
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The CarbonSessions Podcast is produced and edited by Leekei Tang, Steve Heatherington and Rob Slater.
Transcript
I understand that you want to celebrate, but having that every
Speaker:day, having a lot of meat, every.
Speaker:, I don't think it's normal because those are traditions.
Speaker:And in the past, I don't think that the diet of people of us was so rich in meat.
Speaker:And I think it's because it came with, I don't know, what, made
Speaker:us want to eat more meat now?
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:And, and part of it, I think too, is it was a bit promoted and we
Speaker:were told that a balanced diet included these particular items.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And it, so it was a bit in a bit, it was constructed mm-hmm
Speaker:rather than a natural evolution.
Speaker:Um, and certainly if you lived on a farm or.
Speaker:Were hunting or, you know, in days past, then that's what you would have to eat.
Speaker:That makes sense.
Speaker:If you were gathering things, if you were fishing, if you were, um, but
Speaker:when you're not catching it, yes.
Speaker:when you're just going to the store and at any time of the year, you can
Speaker:get whatever kind of thing you want and you can get things that don't even
Speaker:exist in the area that you live in.
Speaker:You know, I can go to the store.
Speaker:And buy ostrich meat.
Speaker:If I wanted to we don't have, you know, um, uh, or kangaroo or things that
Speaker:don't exist in the areas that I live in.
Speaker:So there's things that, that it's so different now, and there's so
Speaker:much good food out there that.
Speaker:You can eat and you can experiment with, and you can try that doesn't have the
Speaker:same carbon footprint that you don't have to rely on cows or chickens or some
Speaker:of these animals that are produced in a way that is unhealthy for the planet.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I eat a lot of tofu.
Speaker:, because I have Asian roots.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:And, um, tofu is love protein.
Speaker:And I actually, there are a lot of people in my family that are
Speaker:vegetarian trick vegetarian, and they eat love tofu as well.
Speaker:And they're very healthy.
Speaker:And, um, some people say, oh, well, if you don't eat
Speaker:red meat, you don't get iron.
Speaker:So, what I do is I eat a lot chocolate well, no, I like that idea.
Speaker:Yes.
Speaker:See, I have, I always have chocolate with you.
Speaker:Oh, she's showing me a bag of chocolate.
Speaker:There you go.
Speaker:Well, there's that?
Speaker:And there's, you know, that's a little bit of a fallacy as well.
Speaker:, I mean, there are definitely some things that you can only get from
Speaker:animal products, but there are supplements out there that you
Speaker:can, uh, complete your diet with.
Speaker:But if you eat a variety of things and especially if you're eating dark,
Speaker:leafy green vegetables, you're getting some iron and you're getting a.
Speaker:It's about the combination of foods that, that make up the protein.
Speaker:And so, you know, quinoa has an incredible amount of protein in it.
Speaker:Uh, tofu, as you say, if you can eat tofu, seeds and nuts are so good for you.
Speaker:And there's also the, the idea that eating a vegetarian diet is, is more expensive.
Speaker:It doesn't have to be in many ways you you'll save money if
Speaker:you're not buying meat yes.
Speaker:On a regular basis.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:I think that having a vegetarian diet requires more.
Speaker:I don't know if it's more work, but it's makes you, it forces you to be
Speaker:more creative in terms of what you cook.
Speaker:But I think it's fun.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:To look for new recipes and talking about recipes.
Speaker:I think the other day, you mentioned that you have a great recipe for O milk.
Speaker:That's very quick and red ship.
Speaker:So I'd like to hear it.
Speaker:Yeah.
Speaker:Um, I have a lot of allergies.
Speaker:There's allergies in our family as well.
Speaker:And so we've been making oat milk for a long time and that's sort of the
Speaker:main milk that we have in our house.
Speaker:Sometimes coconut milk we use in cooking and baking, but Oak milk is so fast,
Speaker:so easy and so inexpensive to make.
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