Reduce Your Water Footprint Without Giving Up Baths

The King of Sweden joked last week that bathtubs ought to be banned because of the amount of fresh water and energy required.

But is that the most efficient way we can save water as consumers?

The average bath-tub seems to hold between 40 and 60 gallons of water, while a 10 minute shower with a 2.1 gallon per minute shower head takes about 20 gallons of water.

So if you decided to take a shower instead of a bath, and limited your shower time to 5 minutes, you could hypothetically save 50 gallons of water (assuming you had a 60 gallon tub).

That’s great, and if everyone did it, it would certainly add up.

But what if you could save fifty times that amount by making a different lifestyle switch?

It turns out, you can.

It takes an estimated 2,500 gallons of water to produce 1 lb of beef.

By serving your family a vegan meal instead of 4 quarter pound beef burgers, you could save FIFTY TIMES the amount of water you would save taking a 5 minute shower instead of a nice long soak in a big bath tub.

I don’t know about you, but I’d rather eat the veggie burger, take a long shower, and still be saving exponentially more water.

This is great news: Not that I don’t think it’s good to shut off the water while you’re brushing your teeth, or try not to take long showers all the time, but how amazing is it that by making a smarter (and healthier) dinner choice, we can have such a drastic reduction in our impact on the environment?

I love that. I want to focus on that rather than the flip side, which is the scary truth that animal agriculture is devastating for our planet. (I watched Cowspiracy last night, and highly recommend it to EVERYONE.)

Plants taste great:I love the food we eat, and I know you can find plant-based meals you and your family will love, too. Check out amazing bloggers like Oh She Glows, Kathy Patalsky and One Ingredient Chef to start, or dive right in and buy one of the cookbooks I’ve recommended. You don’t have to eat anything you don’t like, whether it’s tofu or brussels sprouts. There are so many amazing food options that even the pickiest of diners can find delicious plant-based recipes to add to their repertoire. You too can keep adding one meal at a time to your recipe list, saving thousands of gallons of water, lowering your cholesterol, and living more compassionately.

Let me know if I can help! Happy to answer your plant-eating questions, suggest recipes to replace old favorites, or find options for whatever concerns you most, whether it’s a dish to bring to your next potluck or an easy breakfast idea.

Happy eating – make yourself some vegan pad thai for dinner and take a nice hot shower!