BACKGROUND

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When it comes to plant-based diets, what’s not to like? It’s good for our planet, good for our health and good for the animals! GreenTown Los Altos is here to support YOU and local restaurants in transitioning to more plant-based meals! Here’s why.

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Healthy Bodies = Happy Bodies

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Eating green is good for your health

1. A low-fat, plant-based diet, combined with regular exercise and a healthy overall lifestyle, can prevent, delay and even reverse heart disease and other cardiovascular events.
2. Plant-based diets have been shown to control and reverse Type II diabetes.
3. Large healthcare organizations, like Kaiser Permanente now advise all of their 17,000+ physicians to recommend a plant-based diet to all their patients.

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Happy Animals = Happy Planet

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Plant-based diets are compassionate

1. Plant-based eating reduces animal death and enables animals to live out their full lives. For every person in the world, more than 10 animals are slaughtered each year. Animals are slaughtered at a fraction of their lifespan. Chickens naturally live for 10 years, but when bred for meat, they are typically killed at 6 weeks. Pigs, which live for 15 years, are typically killed at 6 months.
2. Plant-based eating spares animal suffering. The vast majority of chickens, cows and pigs are raised on concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) to maximize efficiency and profitability in living conditions that are not humane. Animals are denied their basic instincts, like roaming, nesting, and nurturing their young.

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Los Altos and Los Altos Hills residents want to eat more plants

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More than two-thirds of omnivores surveyed in Los Altos/Hills want to eat more plant-based foods.

Nearly half of the omnivores surveyed are not happy with the number of plant-based options at local restaurants. This number jumps to two-third when vegans and vegetarians are included. Barriers to residents adopting more plant-based foods at home include a lack of recipes and concerns about nutrition. That’s where we come in.

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Healthy Planet = Healthy People

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Plant-based eating is good for the planet

1. A plant-based diet reduces greenhouse gas emissions (GHGs) – Raising animals for human consumption is a major cause of climate change, generating 18 percent of all GHGs globally.
2. Eating green saves freshwater resources – Nearly 30 percent of freshwater is used for animal agriculture and animal agriculture is a large source of pollution of waterways, coastal areas and coral reefs.
3. Plant-based eating results in more sustainable land use – Three-quarters of all agricultural land is used for animal agriculture. Increased land use for animal agriculture is a key factor in deforestation leading to species extinction and biodiversity loss. Seventy percent of previous forested land in the Amazon is now pasture and feed-crops cover a large part of the remainder.

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References

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1. Livestock’s long shadow (UN FAO 2006)
2. The water footprint of poultry, pork and beef: A comparative study in different countries and production systems
3. Sustaining Life: How Human Health Depends on Biodiversity
4. Center for Biological Diversity
5. Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine on Heart Disease
6. Physicans Committee for Responsible Medicine on Heart Disease
7. A low-fat vegan diet improves glycemic control and cardiovascular risk factors in a randomized clinical trial in individuals with type 2 diabetes.
8. Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets
9. Greenpeace “Less Is More” goal
10. UN FAO statistics

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