We love our meat dishes.

From our favorite uncle’s juicy fall-off-the-bone baby back ribs, to grandma’s sweet golden crispy fried chicken, to mom’s succulent turkey that melts like butter between our lips, meat is the centerpiece of our diet.

Yet, it’s silently sending us to early graves. Heavy meat consumption has been linked to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and cancer. And Americans consume more meat than anyone else on the planet.

Despite the health benefits of plant-based diets, we eat eight ounces of meat daily, twice the world average.

As anyone with a mean cook in the family can tell you, it’s hard to turn down mouth-watering meat dishes. I considered a vegetarian lifestyle myself, but only for a quick minute. Quitting cold turkey would have been more than my taste buds could handle.

But, consider all things in moderation.

That’s the theory behind Meatless Mondays, a health campaign started in association with the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health. The campaign seeks to reduce US.. meat consumption by 15%, simply by having Americans avoid eating meat on Mondays.

The campaign has been embraced by families, restaurants, and health professionals around the world. In 2009, the Baltimore City School district became the first school district to embrace the movement, and Oprah Winfrey herself has promoted the concept.

Financially, Meatless Mondays is a no-brainer. Meat is by far the most expensive component of our diet. Yet, protein can be incorporated at far less cost by using simple meat substitutes like whole grains and legumes (beans and peas). More importantly, it helps reduce consumption of the foods that lead to expensive health problems.

Visit the Meatless Monday website to obtain meatless recipes and learn more about the campaign to improve your health.

BMWK, could your family go meatless one day a week?