It’s Fat Tuesday, and New Orleans is alive with parades, costumes, and beads galore. People around the world are celebrating, too, indulging in king cake and other goodies before giving them up for Lent tomorrow.
But for many Americans and Canadians, while the face paint and masks may come off, the fat stays on. According to a new joint study by both countries, one in four Canadians and one in three Americans is obese, two-thirds of the people in both countries are overweight, and the numbers continue to rise faster than the piles of beads on a Louisiana sidewalk. A big part of the problem is our animal product–based diet, which is heavy in saturated fats. Because plant-based foods contain much less fat than animal-based ones (not to mention all those great vitamins), it’s no surprise that meat-eaters have three times the obesity rate of vegetarians and nine times the obesity rate of vegans. Switching to a plant-based diet also reduces our risk of heart disease, diabetes, arthritis, and cancer.
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So request your free vegetarian/vegan starter kit today, and at this time next year, you’ll be celebrating Thin Tuesday. That might be cause for a parade.
Written by Michelle Sherrow
