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2 Jan, 2012

Five Simple Resolutions For a Healthier Diet & Planet

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) December 30, 2011 — Celebrity Chef, Gen Anderson, creator and host of Gen’s Guiltless Gourmet, a healthy and eco-conscious cooking series premiering on PBS stations in 2012, unveils her top five New Year’s Resolutions for a “healthy planet, healthy you.” All of the resolutions call for people to make small changes in their daily diet and shopping habits that have powerful impacts on their health and the environment.

“Consumers can make choices that really affect change in their lives and in the world,” Chef Gen says. “Every time someone makes a healthy choice for their family and the environment, it sends a message and makes a direct impact. I think that’s an incredibly empowering thing to realize.”

As New Year Resolutions for 2012, Chef Gen invites people to commit to these five simple but powerful changes:

Participate in Meatless Monday: forgoing meat once a week not only reduces saturated fat and cholesterol in the diet, it also reduces the water, fuel, and grain needed to produce meat and the pollutants and byproducts created by large-scale meat farming. In addition, meatless options like beans and lentils are very budget-friendly.

Make healthy swaps: Substitute items like almond milk, vegan cheeses and vegetable margarine for butter and full fat-dairy products in recipes. Swapping one serving of each saves approximately 75mg of cholesterol and 7 grams of saturated fat each day. Raising dairy cows also has a high water and energy cost, so even a small reduction has a major positive impact on the planet.

Commit to organic whenever possible: Chef Gen encourages her viewers to shop organic whenever possible. But if an all-organic diet seems out of reach, consider going organic for at least breakfast and snacks. Switching to organic fruit and cereal won’t overwhelm the food budget, and it will spare families and the planet a lot of pesticides!

Consider portion control: Face it; many of us just eat too much. Serve a sensible amount and refrigerate or freeze leftovers immediately. Something as simple as portion control will help save on the budget, the waistline and resources.

Clean green: Use eco-friendly cleaning products that don’t contain phosphates or harmful chemicals to clean the kitchen and home. This will keep harmful chemicals away from the family and out of the water supply.

As her own commitment for the new year, Chef Gen is resolving to provide a new Meatless Monday recipe on her website every week in 2012 to help people commit to these resolutions!

For recipes, healthy tips, and a clip of Gen’s Guiltless Gourmet visit http://www.gensguiltlessgourmet.com.