#PlantbasedfortheNHS

Today, the NHS celebrates its 70th birthday and decades of saving people’s lives, free of charge. This radical healthcare system is unique across the world in providing health care for everyone, irrespective of wealth, status or any other factor and it is one of the things we can be truly proud of as a nation.

 

In recent years, the NHS has come under threat as a result of dramatic cuts to funding, coupled with increasing strain being put on its services, due to a rise in conditions such as heart disease, cancer, diabetes and obesity.  That’s why we believe that in order to celebrate the NHS – and to save it – we should all be eating more plant-based foods.

“There is no better way to celebrate the wonderful institution that is the NHS than by protecting it, and our health, by eating more plant-based foods,” said Zephie Begolo, Head of Campaigns for ProVeg UK.

“Evidence is mounting that plant-based diets, along with reducing or eliminating meat and dairy products, have huge benefits for our health, from lowering blood pressure and cholesterol, to having a much lower risk of developing diseases or becoming obese. It follows that if we take better care of ourselves, we take better care of the NHS and reduce the strain on the service.”

Not only does a plant-based diet have multiple health benefits – it serves to prevent and even reverse disease and has been found particularly effective in tackling our number one killer and drain on the NHS: heart disease – but a recent study from Ghent University showed that if more people ate more plants and less meat and dairy, substantial savings could be made to our health service.

According to the findings, the UK could save as much as £5.2 billion over the next 20 years if only ten per cent of the population ate more plant-based food. A similar study from Oxford University showed that eating meat no more than three times a week could prevent 31,000 deaths from heart disease, 9,000 deaths from cancer and 5,000 deaths from strokes every year, saving the NHS £1.2 billion.

We can all contribute to saving the NHS and saving our health by making small and simple changes to our diets. We need to eat more plants and less meat.

 

Celebrate the NHS today with some delicious plant-based food and share it with us using #PlantbasedfortheNHS