Blog

WHAT IS THE POINT OF VEGANUARY?

More and more people each year take it upon themselves in January to eat a completely vegan diet: no meat, no eggs, no cheese or milk or any other product that has been produced by or taken from an animal. You might ask yourself why? What is the point in people doing this? Is it simply to push the vegan agenda or to get attention on social media? And what does anyone gain if come February 1st people go straight back to their non-vegan everyday diets?

For January 2021 I decided that this year was the year I did Veganuary. I had always wanted to do it for both ethical and health reasons and being locked at home with less temptation of going out of dinner seemed to remove any reason why I shouldn’t. I had the same thoughts as mentioned above before I started although admittedly, I didn’t realise that I had been thinking them all before I was halfway through the month. But I am now going to do my very best to answer some of those questions based off of my personal experience.

I set myself the aim of doing Veganuary for 3 reasons:

  • To discover new food and recipes to help me eat more vegan friendly meals throughout the year in general
  • To lose weight
  • To prove to myself that I could

 

For background I have been veggie for 2 years, but I loved eating meat for 20 before that, all of my family and most of my friends eat meat, none are vegan (that I know of) and I was the fussiest eater ever (even know I dislike mushrooms, kidney beans and everything else we veggie folk are supposed to thrive on)

IS IT SIMPLY TO PUSH THE VEGAN AGENDA?

I may be biased in answering this question because, while not a vegan myself, I am a proud vegetarian who holds strong animal rights and eco-friendly views. However, I was a meat eater for 20 years, I had a favourite steak restaurant and I understand the allure of a bacon sandwich.  Through talking to people I have realised that a number of people refuse to eat anything vegan simply because it is vegan, even if they enjoyed it before realising; it’s as if eating anything vegan at all somehow tears apart who you are as a meat and cheese eating individual…. I hate to inform those people but bread is more often than not vegan, as are chips, as is dark chocolate. I understand the mistrust if you have no idea what is in the food you are being offered, I was often the same about both meat and vegetables, but I spoke to my meat-eating, chicken loving boyfriend about this who agreed with me, that this is a totally absurd idea…because if something is tasty we should all be able to enjoy it.

So in short, no, it is not some fancy attempt to turn each and every one of us into lettuce munching rabbits (I for one will refuse lettuce whenever I possibly can in every situation, it is one of the dullest foods in my mind) but it does make you more aware of how much is on offer. Regardless of whether you want to go vegan or you want to exile them all as far away as possible, they do have some tasty food, and this whole month could simply be a month of culinary exploration eating tasty food and nothing deeper than that.

 

DO I HAVE TO CHANGE MY ENTIRE DIET?

In short, no, in long it depends. I admit that I was off to a slightly easier start being vegetarian as many of my meat replacements were already vegan without me realising. On saying this I spent my first week living on sausage rolls, spaghetti and meatballs, chips and pie and didn’t actually feel like I had changed my diet in any way shape or form.

(Side note: vegan cakes, brownies and desserts are the absolute BOMB and I would totally recommend)

Since this first week however, I have tried to branch out a little, or else I wasn’t going to achieve aim 2 and I was sort of half-arsing the other two aims. I picked up a cheap vegan cookbook and joined a beginner’s page on Facebook (neither of which is necessary it just worked to inspire me) and have made it my aim to go out of my comfort zone a little. Much of my change, however, came from just buying a bag of spinach and putting it in everything. I feel healthier and my brain has started to crave healthier food as well. I am sure people would go further than me, make their own meat substitutes from scratch or ditch them all together and I admire those people, but I am not quite there in my journey yet, it takes time to learn and a spinach and pesto sandwich with some Quorn chicken style slices does me fine.

WILL I LOSE WEIGHT?

I don’t know if I can give an accurate answer on this. Everyone’s bodies are different for a start and may react differently plus, as mentioned above, it also depends on what type of vegan foods you are eating; a pie and chips is still a pie and chips even if it’s made from plants. I saw many people on the Facebook community that I joined claim to have slim down and the pictures were impressive; they also claimed it helped with all sorts of ailments and for so for many it does appear to have a really positive affect in helping people become healthier, whatever that might mean for them.

I do feel like I am slowly losing some of the fat that my body stores around my stomach, however, I also took up walking and got a Fitbit around the same time as I started Veganuary so it wasn’t an isolated healthy change in my lifestyle. I am more aware of the energy I am burning and taking in each day and I am also moving so much more than I have for nearly a year since lockdown began.

If you are interested in trying to be healthier, what do you lose in giving it a shot? For many it works and it might for you to, and if it doesn’t you’ve reduced your carbon footprint for a while and got more goodness into your body so it’s a win-win really.

IS IT REALLY HELPING THE PLANET AND THE ENVIRONMENT OR IS IT A FAD?

Admittedly, become vegan for a month before returning to your normal diet does seem to be a futile attempt at being ethical from an outside point of view… but it really isn’t. It is a horrible thing to do but when you go to the supermarket and you look down the meat isle think about how many animals are probably there and then think of the number of supermarkets around the UK and the world with isles just like it. Having a movement like Veganuary will overtime convince people to even cut meat out one day a week or twice a month and that in turn will slowly reduce the number of animals being bred for slaughter. It is a gradual movement, and it has to be for economical and ethical reasons but Veganuary tells the suppliers that people are thinking more about what they are eating and the ethics behind it.

I have an app that calculates the effect of me, as a single being, going Vegan. At the time of writing I have done it for 20 days and I have saved:

 

  • 83,279 litres of water
  • 408 Kilograms of grain
  • 56 square meters of forest
  • 181 kilograms of CO2
  • And 20 Animal Lives

So even if come February 1st I go back to my normal lifestyle… and I probably will grab some cheddar cheese, I have told the supplier that I am thinking about what I eat and where it is coming from and urging them to do better to make it easier for the consumer to do better.

CAN I AFFORD IT?

Meat replacements can be expensive but so can meat and you have no idea what you are eating when it comes to cheaper meat items. Look for special offers if you want supplements and they mostly all freeze so you can stock up BUT buy ingredients not meals and you can go vegan on a budget and make your money stretch far further. Vegetables and bases like pasta, rice, lentils can be bought cheaply and used to batch cook some gorgeous dishes for a fraction of the cost.

 

TOP TIPS I HAVE LEARNED SO FAR

  • Oat milk is fantastic! I will always use this from now on as I prefer it
  • Avocado is creamy AF and can be used to supplement cream cheese and butter among other things – I mushed it up and added it to pasta with vegetable stock for a DIVINE dish
    • There are lots of vegan spread that are super tasty but many contain Palm Oil so it depends on the individual and their individual qualms
  • Many veggie supplements are already vegan so just check
  • Unexpected items – like Bacon Rasher crisps – are vegan so again, if you want something, check the label and you never know
  • Lentils are tasty – I avoided like the plague before
  • For UK readers: Plant Chef, Bosh, GRO and Wicked are AMAZING! Also Walls sausage rolls

WHAT IS THE POINT IN VEGANUARY

To conclude, I will break down the top things I have learned this month and covered in this blog:

  • By doing Veganuary you are making a difference! You are lowering your carbon footprint and telling suppliers that you expect better ethical practises and ethical changes to occur even if you go back to eating cheesy steaks every day afterward.
  • You will discover some fabulous food because you are looking for it. I never looked for it before but oh wow was I ignoring so many fantastic food options.
  • You will feel a difference in yourself, you will have more energy and feel a million times healthier