Veganuary is a non-profit organization from the UK that was founded in 2013. The call for vegan January has been taking place annually since 2014. Traditionally, the first of January marks the start of Veganuary (from vegan January). This challenge is about eating vegan for a month, i.e. without animal products such as meat, fish, dairy products, eggs and honey.
However, Veganuary can be begun at any time. Anyone who registers on the Veganuary website will receive emails with articles, videos and information about a vegan lifestyle for 31 days. We signed up for the first time this year and were pleasantly surprised. Registration is free and, in our opinion, offers valueable information. The daily emails are informative and varied and answer the most frequently asked questions on the subject.
We really enjoyed the 31-day journey and can recommend it to anyone who is interested. After all, a vegan diet can improve your health and help protect animals and the planet. We will therefore go into more detail about these three common reasons to try a vegan diet.
To make Veganuary easier, we recommend our vegan cookbook. More than 100 recipes cover every meal from breakfast and main dishes to snacks and desserts. The recipes give you step-by-step instructions so that everyone (even beginners 😊) can easily prepare plant-based dishes. Grocery shopping is a breeze with the enclosed detailed list.
1. For animal welfare
The FAO estimates that nearly 78 billion animals were killed for meat production in 2020. Many of these animals are kept in deplorable conditions until they are sent to the slaughterhouse.
Avoiding dishes containing animal products sets an example – not only during Veganuary, but also the rest of the year. Every meal makes a difference. Which brings us to the second reason:
2. For the health of the planet
On average, plant-based foods have significantly lower CO2 emissions than products of animal origin. Over the entire supply chain, this can mean 10-50 times lower CO2 emissions for plant-based food compared to animal-based food. According to Our World in Data, factors such as transportation distance, processing and packaging play a very minor role for all foods. So if you want to reduce your CO2 emissions, you should pay more attention to the food itself than to its origin. If you would like to find out more about this topic, we recommend our article How to easily reduce your CO2 footprint.
3. For your own health
Plants are naturally free of cholesterol. Our body is able to produce its own. However, if we ingest cholesterol through food, as is the case with animal products, we can have too much of it. If you are taking cholesterol-lowering medication, you can usually reduce or even stop taking the medication after a few weeks by switching to a whole food plant-based diet – but please only do so with your doctor’s permission.
Another nice side effect of a vegan diet is often weight loss without dieting or exercising more. This is because most plants have a lower calorie density than animal products and contain fiber. This cleanses the intestines and feeds the “good bacteria” in our gut. This makes us feel full and also gives us a good digestion! 😊
However, this is not the case with highly processed plant-based foods such as sugar, refined grains and oil. If you want to do even more for your health, cut out processed foods as well.
Are you highly motivated to take part in Veganuary? Great! Sign up on the Veganuary website or simply challenge yourself for a month. Make sure to look into our cookbook where you’ll find more than 100 healthy, vegan recipes ranging from breakfast to starters, main courses and even desserts!
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