If you are taking a flight or attend a conference, you are likely to get meat on your tray unless you request a vegetarian meal. The photos of fleshy fillets and hamburgers appear prominently in menus and flyers. Even nurseries and hospitals usually serve meat menus.
Public health recommendations, such as the Canada Food Guide, And the investigation shows that a diet rich in plants and low in red meat is healthier for people’s bodies, Increase life expectancy and It is more sustainable.
However, meat is the predetermined value in most North America menus: something that those who create, serve and consume food may not realize, says a group that is trying to turn the script and facilitate that the people choose healthier options.
“Make the plant the predetermined value and give people the option to opt for meat, which preserves freedom of choice, but normalizes the options based on plants for all,” said Katie Cantrell, co -founder and executive director of Greener by default.
How predetermined options push people to eat meat
The predetermined values are often unconscious and involuntary, he said: “I do not think that most people think like ‘Oh, I want to take my diners to the flesh’. I think it is really just this framework of ‘vegetarian food is For vegetarians and, you know, other things are for everyone else ‘”.
She remembered the story of her mother’s friend, who was served a dry and little appetizing plate in an event. When he saw his vegetarian co -worker with a dish of colorful vegetables, he wanted to have asked for that. “But because it does not identify as a vegetarian, he does not believe that he requests a vegetarian meal.”
This self -identification is a reason why omnivores are much more likely to choose an article described as “black beans enchiladas” than “vegetarian enchiladas,” Cantrell said.
And when the meat is the automatic option, most omnivores will “choose” in inertia, he added, like most people do not change the default configuration on their phone or software.
How to make diners choose more plants
Cantrell believes that most people know that eating more plants and less red meat is healthier and more sustainable.
Serving more plants is also more inclusive, he said, since many religions have flesh restrictions and many common allergies are for animal products such as dairy or eggs.
But people face many breeding based on their lives.
That is why Greener, by default, offers strategies to institutions that serve foods on how Green and healthy.
For example, the group consulted a company that has an annual labor retirement, where breakfast bowls with scrambled eggs, hash and vegetables are served. Greenst suggested that instead of accumulating bacon and sausages at the top, the company put the meat in a separate self -service station.
The result? “Maybe a third or half of the people rose and actually selected breakfast meats,” Cantrell recalled.

In another case, plant -based meals were breach in a conference and the people who requested a meat meal obtained a little red sticker in their badge (such as the green sticker that vegetarians usually have when the meat is breach ).
Cantrell was surprised at the powerful effect of normalizing plants based meals. Some attendees were ashamed of the red sticker. “We were certainly not trying to create any type of stigma,” he said. “But it’s interesting.”
Studies worldwide have shown that breaches based on plants It can significantly increase the number of omnivores that choose plants based on.
In addition to changing the predetermined value, studies show that putting plants based on the front of a buffet or changing the name of plants based on plants to highlight flavors, textures and ingredients instead of their health Or the lack of meat also encourages omnivores to choose them. For example, rename “meatless sausages and mashed” to “sausages and puree on vegetables with Cumberland spices” Increased sales by 76 percent in a coffee chain in the United Kingdom.
Look | Why universities are changing plant menus
David Speight, the executive chef and culinary director of Food Services at UBC, explains how 55 percent of the University’s menu is based on plants, and what does this represent for universities in Canada.
Universities take an advantage in change of plants
Kathleen Kevany, a professor of agriculture at the University of Dalhousie, focused on sustainable diets, likes such strategies to preserve the choice. “It simply allows people to try foods that could not otherwise, because one were not even on offer and two, they did not become very attractive.”
Dalhouse is among the universities throughout the country that are Introduce more food based on their dining rooms and establish objectives Make those a majority of the dishes they offer, driven by the demand between younger and diverse Canadians and climatic concerns.
Kevany has been part of a group called Dal by default that has also been trying to obtain more food breaches based on plants in smaller events such as departmental meetings and celebrations.
“Universities are in an excellent position to have a multiplier effect,” he said. “They are already fulfilling millions of meals a day … why not make it more evident that we are leaders in climate change solutions, we are leaders in health improvements and we are leaders in equity and justice?”
Kevany is also the principal researcher of the food impact network, which collaborates with other researchers, institutions such as Halton Healthcare, the food supplier Aramark and groups like Greener by default, to help put more food based on plants in menus and reduce food waste.
“Because climate change is urgent, we are not putting responsibility for family members or homes alone,” he said. “The emphasis has to be in the change of institution and systems.”
Look | Training of professional chefs in plants based:
Chefs Amy Symington and Andrew Duhasky were present at a plants -based culinary training event at the Western University.
Hospitals get happier patients, financial savings
Together with universities, hospitals are among the first adopters of this approach.
The Vancouver General Hospital launched a pilot project last year to add two dozen new dishes to its menu in association with chef Ned Bell and Greener by default. The new dishes emphasized flavors around the world and plant -based food, but also incorporated poultry and sustainable seafood.
Dr. Andrea Macneil, surgeon of the hospital cancer that also founded and directs the Planetary Health Laboratory of the University of Columbia Britanic, was one of the researchers who direct the project. She He told CBC’s Blanca Pata, Black Art That the objective was to show that a menu that meets the needs of human nutrition and planetary health was possible within the operational limitations of a hospital.
The new dishes included a coconut chickpea curry and a bowl of Thai noodles with Thai mani dressing, Tofu, Edamame and Bok Choy.
Listening | Make delicious and sustainable hospital food:
Black Bata Black Art26:30Make delicious and sustainable hospital food
When Ned Bell’s wife was recovering from cancer surgery at the Vancouver General Hospital, the little appetizing foods that served her left a bad taste in her mouth. Then, the five -star chef associated with his wife’s surgeon to renew patient meals. Dr. Brian Goldman visits chef Bell in the hospital testing cuisine to see how the new “planetary health menu” helps increase the patient’s health and reduce the carbon footprint of the traditional foods of the hospital.
Macneil said it was very exciting to see patients try the new dishes.
“In many cases … these people had not had much exposure to proteins based on plants, things like Tofu or Tempeh, and naturally they would not have chosen, for example, that outside a restaurant menu or even outside a hospital menu . “And many of them expressed this pleasant surprise for how delicious the dishes were.”
Greenst estimated that the change of menu reduced the greenhouse gas emissions of its meals by 40 percent. Macneil said patients also reported better satisfaction with their food and generated less food waste.
Because plants based on plants tend to be cheaper than meat, exchange in more plants often saves money, New York hospitals that added more meals based on plants reported saving an average of 59 cents per food in 2023.
Now, Vancouver Coastal Health is taking the dishes with the best performance of the pilot of the General Hospital of Vancouver and surrounds them in the rest of his hospitals.
Yes, you can try this at home
While institutions are taking the initiative, Cantrell says that breaches based on plants are also something that people can implement in their personal lives if they are organizing a great event, such as a wedding, or even attending a meal.
“It’s more inclusive, it’s cheaper and more sustainable,” he said. “So, even those little personal options such as ‘I will try a recipe for vegan cookies for this meal that I am going to go so that more people can eat it even though I am not personally vegan’. The paradigm exchange rate we expect.”