Live healthy with

Pleated dress, £55; belt, £14; shoes, £25, all M&Co

This week campaigner and food writer talks to us about her vegan Christmas and her wishes for the new year...

Now you’re feeling stuffed from yesterday’s Christmas turkey lunch, I thought I would take advantage as you look at making your New Year’s resolutions – and possibly start to prepare for Veganuary...

Without frightening you too much here are some facts. Some 630 million turkeys are produced for meat each year globally, 240 million in the United States and more than 240 million in the EU.

Commercially grown birds have been selectively bred for fast growth and have disproportionately large breast muscles. They are slaughtered when they are between nine and 24 weeks old, and many weigh up to 20 kg.

In the EU, more than 90% of turkeys are kept indoors for intensive farming, and up to 25,000 of them have no outdoor access and are kept in sheds.

If you are insistent on eating meat, please try and buy it from small producers. Some keep animals in open barns with natural lighting and ventilation and some space, so at least it’s not as cruel, but it’s still not ideal.

A lot of vegans don’t actually like the taste of meat and this is the reason they follow a vegan diet. However, myself and millions of others around the world love to have a meat substitute once or twice a week and this is no different at

Christmas.

It’s because of this that this year I decided to make a vegan turkey and a vegan gammon served with VBites vegan sausages wrapped in vegan bacon – a copy of traditional pigs in blankets. In fact, most of the Christmas plate we have at this time of year is the same as the one we have for our usual Sunday roast.

If like me one of your favourite components is cauliflower cheese, please try the new Applewood Vegan Smoky Cheese as an alternative for this popular side dish. A best-seller in Asda, it melts and is stringy with a great smoky, paprika taste. I also like to add Marmite if you like that sort of thing...

Happy New Year!

■ For more great recipes go to VBites. com and Veganuary.com.

‘‘

I put vegan sausages in vegan bacon to make pigs in blankets