Why being a weekday vegetarian is perfect for health-aware meat eaters

Carnivorous on weekends, vegetarian on weekdays

Back in 2010, treehugger.com founder Graham Hill got the world's attention with his seminal TED Talk Why I'm a Weekday Vegetarian.

As Hill explained, he knew he should be a vegetarian:

  1. It's good for our health: "I knew that eating a mere hamburger a day increased my risk of dying by a third."
  2. It minimises animal cruelty: "I knew that the 10 billion animals we raise each year for meat are raised in factory farm conditions that we hypocritically wouldn't consider for our own cats, dogs or other pets."
  3. It's better for the environment: "Meat amazingly causes more emissions than all of transportation combined – cars, trains, planes, buses, boats. And beef production uses 100 times the water than most vegetables do."

But he liked the taste of meat and couldn't bear the thought of eating his last hamburger, so he came up with the concept of being a weekday vegetarian with the only rules being "nothing with a face Monday to Friday, and on the weekend, your choice".

Hill says we've been told that we have to be either a meat eater or a vegetarian, but that sort of restrictive labelling can put people who like meat off more plant-based eating.

Being a weekday vegetarian means that your diet is plant-based and super clean throughout the week, but you don't have to bring your own veggie burgers to your mate's barbecue or say no to a Bunnings sausage when you do your weekend handyman stint.

Studies suggest flexitarian diets are rising in popularity as people cotton on to the fact we don't need to eat meat at breakfast, lunch and dinner to be healthy.

RELATED: Five ways to eat less meat and not miss it at all

Nutrition and wellbeing specialist Melanie McGrice says she's a big fan of the weekday vegetarian diet because it allows us to view meat as a "sometimes food".

"It reflects the research about longevity – communities who tend to live longer only eat small amounts of meat and poultry, but they don't cut it out altogether," she told Coach.

"I like this as a concept mainly because it means that you are not cutting out those nutritious foods of beef and lamb and poultry – it's a flexible and nutritious way to eat that I would really encourage."

If you want to remain on your A-game throughout the week, then McGrice says you need to get a good combination of amino acids so you get whole sources of protein.

"Foods that come from animals – meat, poultry, fish, eggs and dairy – contain all of our essential amino acids," she explains.

"But if you are having legumes, they don't have all of the amino acids, so you have to complement them with other amino acids from grains or nuts in the same meal."

Easy ways of doing that might be having kidney beans and rice, chickpeas and quinoa or a tofu burger made with grainy bread.

"Another good way to eat is be a weekday pescetarian and eat fish as well, because if you're only having meat or poultry once or twice a week you won't meet omega-3 requirements," McGrice says.

If you're eating the bulk of your meat at restaurants and cafes, there's a good chance that they'll use more fat, salt and sugar than you'd ordinarily use at home.

"But as long as you're not eating out at restaurants too often – like once or twice a week – then that's moderation," McGrice says.

"If you're eating well in the week then that will balance those occasional indulgences out."

RELATED: The rise of the 'flexitarian' and the plant-based diet