Meat consumption is the number 1 cause of global pollution

Yes your read that right, eating meat and other animal products is the number 1 cause of global warming and pollution. The production of beef alone is more environmentally damaging than all cars, I’m not even kidding

Now, I’m not a Vegan and probably never will be due to cultural and social reasons, but I try to minimise eating animal foods as much as I can. I understand that it’s hard and can be scary at first, but with persistence you can also minimise how much animal products you eat on a daily. Eating steak at a restaurant once every few months is not a problem, however it starts becoming a problem when you start to consume meats every single day! 

There's a very good short documentary on YouTube showing you the effects of animal product consumption on the environment. Here it is below, make sure you switch on subtitles as the video is narrated in French. There is also another great documentary which is 45 minutes long but is a must watch for people who care about the environment as much as I do. I will link it at the bottom of this post.

I will be showing your some ways in which I have stopped eating animal products and also saved lots of money on!

Ditch the milk.

Not only is milk and other dairy products extremely acidic and can cause all sorts of skin and hormonal problems it is also chemically filled with nasty things such as growth hormones and antibiotics which only does more harm that good. Unless you get your milk from your own local farmer that you can trust, I would stop consuming it altogether. Below are some alternatives to milk that I use daily.

Coconut milk, although has more calories than regular milk, it also is much more creamier and tasty than it. It contains healthy fat and it very good for you. If you looking for alternative to full fat milk, coconut milk is the way to go. Just be sure not to drink too much as it does contain quite a few calories. Supermarkets also sell diluted coconut milk which is also a good alternative.

Almond milk is also another favourite of mine. It isn’t as creamy as coconut milk, but it does have a nice sweet taste for it. It’s extremely popular here in the UK and comes in many flavours including my favourite: Chocolate! For those who need something to satisfy their sweet tooth, I highly recommend you try a favoured Almond milk.

Other milk alternatives include rice milk, oat milk and soy milk. Soy milk is not as popular as the other milks but it is really tasty. People seem to steer away from soy products because of the myth that is causes your estrogen levels to go up, but this is just a myth and is debunked here.

In today's day and age there are literally hundreds of milk alternative brands with any flavour you can imagine. There really is no excuse. I personally prefer drinking almond and coconut milk, both of which can be bought from Tesco cheaply.

Try some meat alternatives

If you are a meat head and you need to consume meat everyday then I suggest you be careful as processed meats have recently been found out to becancerous if eaten too much . If your looking for a good meat alternative, tofu is a great choice, and with the right mix of ingredients and spices, you can make it taste like real meat.

You can also opt in for a quote based product. Tesco sell lots of quorn meats and to me they taste really good. I personally like the mince and chicken burgers but there are plenty of products to choose from. Take a look here.

Conclusion 

That’s just some ways I reduce my meat consumption, I suggest you also read more about how meat production is extremely bad for the environment and hopefully you can make a decision like me to cut back on meat and animal products.

People really need to ask themselves, do I really need to eat this much chicken or steak every night? And the answer is NO! You don’t. The reason why people feel that they need to eat so much meat is because they have been trained by a young age to do so. Think about it, 100 years ago humans never had any supermarkets and so had to do their own hunting and do you really think every single family hunted every day? No, of course not. Back then humans relied on fruits and vegetables and grains to keep them alive until their next hunt. Maybe it’s time we do the same too...

Thanks for reading, here is the video I mentioned earlier in the post

Mistakes young driver make when buying their first car

Having a car is great, it gives you the feeling of freedom and can be a great way to transport your friends and family around the country. Cars have gotten much better over the years in terms of design, efficiency and pollution friendliness. I was 19 when I passed my exams and right away I purchased my first car, a ford focus 1.6 petrol. Unfortunately because of my inexperience and excitement, I rushed when buying my first car only to be shocked by the bills later on. Here is a pic of my first car:

How to choose your first car

Choosing a car is the most exciting part of the whole driving experience however many young drivers fall for the trap and choosing a car that looks good and forgetting about things like reliability, efficiency running costs. When choosing your car, generally speaking the lower the engine size the cheaper the insurance, road tax and fuel efficiency it’s going to be. If you plan to nip around town, or do mostly short journeys a small petrol engine car would be your best bet. If you plan to drive long motorway miles, then a diesel engine car would be more fuel efficient. Also when a car manufacturer claims that a car does 60mpg its highly unrealistic and unachievable in real world scenarios. I came across a good website called REAL MPG where people submit their real life mpg of their cars. Its always a good idea to go for a car with a reasonably high real mpg.

Do not fall for any traps

Insurance

Insurance prices for young and new drivers can be off putting at first, but you need to remember that car insurance is arranged in groups with the lowest being 1 and the highest being 50. The lower the insurance group, the less you need to pay for car insurance. If your looking for a low insurance group car take a look at this website that lists the carswith group 1 insurance. For young drivers you can get a black box installed in your car to save you even more money. Be careful though, a black box can monitor you speeds so don’t go over speed or there will be consequences, some insurance companies also restrict you to drive late hours, so make sure you read the terms and conditions.

Road Tax

Road tax is also something to look out for. When I purchased my first car, the road tax cost me almost 150 pounds for a full year. It might not sound like much but it adds up. Over the course of 5 years That’s 750 pounds, now it’s not so funny, eh? Make sure you look at the tax bracket of a car before buying. These days some cars are Road tax free and some can be 20 pounds, while other high end cars can go Al the way up to 500 pounds/year. Make sure your keep up to date with the latest laws on road tax as they have changed some things recently.

Customising your car

Many drivers like myself like to customise their car. It makes your car stand out from the crowd and shows a little bit of your personality. Personally I like to tint my rear windows black which makes the car look more sportier. Other people like to change the rims on the wheels and some people go as far as getting a new body kit installed. The problem with customising your car is that insurance companies require you to tell them beforehand, and this will probably end up making your premium insurance cost even higher. Tinted windows alone will add around 50 pounds to your insurance bill. People who avoid telling their insurance about any third party customisations are more likely to her their claim rejected because your didn’t tell them about your customisations, so please don’t take the risk.

Got enough money? Go electric

Electric cars are great, they produce instant torque and save you a ton of money on fuel and road tax costs. As I mentioned in my intro post, I try my best to go as green as I can and to reduce my carbon footprint as much as possible. The problem with electric cars is that they tend to be more expensive to insure because of how fast they can accelerate. They are also more expensive to buy and opposed to regular fuel driven cars due to expensive batteries. Luckily in the UK the government can give you a £5000 grant when buying a brand new plug in electric car, so that’s something to look for.

I don’t expect any young drivers to buy an electric car just yet due to the cost of buying one but you can always think of getting one once you secure a nice paying job in the future. I myself am saving up for a Tesla model S, which doesn't look your stereotypical electric car at all and can accelerate faster than most supercars! Check out how fast a Tesla model s accelerates:

That’s all for today lads and gals. I hope it has been helpful to you, if you please share it with your friends that are looking to buy their first car soon. Don’t forget to comment below on what your first car was.