Going vegetarian, if only for a day, is a growing trend not just in Baltimore, but around the U.S. Johns Hopkins Hospital recently joined the meatless movement, following in the footsteps of Baltimore City Public Schools.
Here's an excerpt:
"The campaign started in 2003 as a nonprofit public health initiative of The Monday Campaigns, in association with the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future in Baltimore, Maryland.
But aside from the alliteration, why meatless and why Monday?
"Studies suggest we are more likely to maintain behaviors begun on Monday throughout the week," according to the Healthy Monday public health campaign.
Research compiled by the initiative suggests going meatless conserves water, reduces carbon footprints and lowers intake of saturated fats.
"You certainly don't need to eat meat to get protein. Meat is an important part of your diet, but you don't need to eat it every day of the week," Ralph Logiscli, director of the Healthy Monday Project, told CNN.
On April 12, Johns Hopkins Hospital's cafeteria began offering only vegetarian options in its Wellness Corner on Mondays. "If you think chili needs meat, you don't know beans," touts a promotional poster featuring the cafeteria's chef, Shawn Fields.
There are vocal critics.
When Baltimore City Public Schools adopted Meatless Mondays last year as a way to cut costs, conservative commentator Glenn Beck deemed it an indoctrination of children to vegetarianism and veganism and decried it as an over-extension of governmental control."
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