From: red_trek@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu
Newsgroups: alt.support.diet
Subject: "short Environmental Tips" available (one detailed here)
Date: 9 Sep 92 11:36:58 -0500
Organization: Carnegie Mellon Computer Club

Did you know that what you eat affects not only your health
but also the environment?

For example:  a meat-centred diet consumes 3 times the fuel energy,
100 times the water and 20 times the land that does a vegetarian
diet.  Eating that big slab  of steak on your plate isn't just bad 
for your heart, it contirubtes to top soil erosion.

As dieters, you folk probably already know that  animal products
(meat, dairies, eggs) are the source of *all* cholestrol (foods
of vegetable origin do *not* contain any  cholestrol), most
saturated fat (vegetable-derived exceptions: palm and cocconut
oils) and half your total fat consumption (assuming animal product-
based diet).  (Animal-derived products exceptioned to above:
skim milk and egg whites).

Another tidbit of information:  the average person in the U.S.
(I dunno about abroad, sorry) consumes twice the protein s/he
needs.  Unfortunately, one side effect of this is the body
must leech calcium from the bones to process the excess protein:
it's important to moderate your protein intake (to about
10% of your calories, no more than 15%; one gram of protein
has 4 calories, just like one gram of carbohydrates; one 
gram of fat has 9 calories).  One easy way to do this is
to cut back on animal-derived foods and rely on vegetarian
sources of protein (there are 20 kinds of beans, all delicious
and veristile!) and calcium (dairies tend to be additionally
heavy on protein, which doesn't help your efforts to moderate
your protein intake; dark green leafy vegetables, broccoli and
blackstrap molasses are all good sources of calcium, and some
are also good sources of iron).

The average person needs about 25-30+ grams of fiber everyday,
often difficult to attain on a meat-centered diet but easy when
you use beans (high-fiber food; additionally, some have calcium
too) more frequently.

Now, to the title of this posting:  More info on what *you*
can do to save the earth, whether by changing your diet, recycling,
snipping the holes of plastic six-pack holders, or rotating
your tires every 6-8,000 miles  is all provided in a 300-line,
40 block file called "Short Environmental Tips."  if
interested in the file (no, it won't have all the nutritional
info provided above :-) ), contact me at:

Red_Trek@drycas.club.cc.cmu.edu


Note:  "Short Environmental tips" is expressly *NOT* copyrighted!
Please *do* distribute in any way you can!  Crosspost in newsgroups,
mailing lists and bulletin board services; pass on to peole
you know, both on the net and off; print out and donate a copy
to your local or school library; use a tip tin your sig file;
use tips as fillers in a publication your maintain; distribute
in any other way you can think of !


Note:  for more information on how a vegetarian diet can be healthier
for you and the planet, you are encouraged to check out rec.food.veg.
If you don't see info you want, ask.   Or if you don't want to 
bother picking your way through the flame wars and digressions
that keep cropping up over there to find the one helpful note
or recipice, check out the book "Diet for a Smaller Planet"
(sorry, have forgotten author, etc, and I have no idea if it's
available out of the United STates).