Preserving the environment is essential to the health and prosperity of generations to come. Ensure the protection of your children’s and grandchildren’s well-being by engaging in an eco-friendly lifestyle. These behaviors help conserve the planet and also improve your and your family’s health.
There are various habits you can adopt to decrease your carbon footprint and risk for illnesses. Finding alternate forms of transportation, consuming a plant-based diet, eliminating smoking and growing your food are a few ways to improve your well-being and reduce your environmental impact.
Take Alternate Forms of Transportation
Walking and biking as a means of transportation are popular options. These activities significantly reduce one’s risk for cardiovascular disease.
Cycling stimulates your heart, lungs and circulation. In addition, bikers have three times less exposure to pollution than car commuters do. Biking significantly reduces one’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions by limiting the number of fossil fuels they burn.
Utilizing alternate forms of transportation increases biodiversity on Earth. As walking and cycling become normalized forms of travel, traffic will decrease, reducing its impact on animal and plant habitats. This will allow species to flourish.
Engaging in cycling and walking as a means of travel can improve your family and the environment’s health. Rather than driving to your favorite parks to play, utilize bike paths to get there. You can also research restaurants close to your home and walk there for dinner rather than driving across town.
Eat a Plant-Based Diet
Vegan options can now be found in corporate coffee shops and popular fast-food restaurants. The plant-based revolution continues to sweep the globe, partially due to its environmental benefits. It also reduces the risk for certain illnesses, making it one of the healthiest diets.
Folks who limit their meat and dairy consumption have lower rates of heart disease, cancer and diabetes. They also live 3.6 years longer on average. The intake of red meat increases one’s risk of mortality, colon cancer and heart attack. Flexitarian diets boost your health and also decrease environmental degradation.
Factory farming is responsible for 60% of agricultural greenhouse gas emissions. Methane is an air pollutant released during beef production, and it is a leading cause of global climate change. When you reduce your meat consumption, you limit the number of harmful pollutants that enter the atmosphere.
Outside of methane emissions, factory farms produce significant amounts of waste. Around 300 million metric tons of trash are generated annually by this agricultural sector. The majority is derived from toxins in the soil from pesticides.
When pesticides mix with dirt, they promote agricultural growth. As it rains, those toxins spill into rivers and streams, which lead to the ocean. A buildup of pesticides in the sea destroys the marine ecosystem and creates dead zones where life is uninhabitable.
Your family can reduce its support of marine and atmospheric degradation by adopting a plant-based diet. Their risk of fatal diseases can also decrease with the reduction of meat and dairy consumption.
Quit Smoking
Global awareness of health concerns caused by smoking cigarettes increased over the past few decades. About one in five deaths are attributed to tobacco use each year. Adults between the ages of 55 and 80 who smoke, or have quit in the past decade, have high risks of developing lung cancer.
Often these essential statistics overshadow the environmental impacts of cigarettes. The growth of tobacco plants poses severe ecological consequences. Deforestation is necessary to maintain an adequate supply due to the high global demand for these products.
Biodiversity loss, water pollution, soil erosion and greenhouse gas emissions all increase when farming tobacco. Between the pesticide runoff, cigarette production and improper disposal by civilians, this industry generates 45 million metric tons of waste.
If you or your family members use tobacco products, discuss addiction’s bodily and environmental harm. Creating a smoke-free environment in the home can allow for a healthy atmosphere and a smaller carbon footprint.
Grow Your Food
Adding a vegetable garden to your backyard or rooftop can substantially increase your family’s health and well-being. The act of gardening can improve your cardiovascular health and increase your vitamin D intake. A rise of this vitamin in the body boosts concentration, the ability to heal and your mood.
Gardening can reduce your symptoms of depression and anxiety, thanks to an organic connection and physical exercise. This also increases the quality of produce you are consuming. When you grow your own food, you can ensure that pesticides and other harmful chemicals were not used in the process.
Consuming fresh fruits and vegetables can reduce your family’s risk for chronic diseases, strokes and cancer. When your body receives vitamins and minerals from food rather than supplements, it increases the bioavailability of those nutrients.
Home gardens also limit your negative impact on the planet. When food is available in your backyard, you cut out the CO2 emissions it takes to drive to the grocery store. Most produce in our stores is imported from various countries. The fossil fuels burned in transporting food to your local market leave a large carbon footprint.
Incorporating Eco-Friendly Habits Into Your Routine
If you are ready to improve your family’s health while decreasing your environmental impact, it helps to start small. When working to adopt a plant-based diet, begin as a flexitarian. Consume mainly vegan meals and occasionally add animal products to your plate.
You can also try biking to work one day a week to start and increase days from there. Whatever habits you chose to incorporate into your routine, include the whole family to hold each other accountable while shrinking your footprint.
