VEGANUARY IS BACK ON THE MENU!
MILLIONS around the world are trying a vegan diet this month in a bid to boost their health – and save the world!
It comes as First News celebrates its Healthy Eating Month to help you to eat well and kick off the new year in the best possible way.
Vegans only eat food made from plants. They choose not to eat anything that’s come from animals, such as meat or eggs and dairy products like cheese.
In 2014, a York couple called Jane Land and Matthew Glover launched Veganuary, which invites people to try a vegan diet for the month of January. In its first year, 3,300 took part in the campaign.
Since then, it’s become much more popular; 700,000 people signed up through the official Veganuary website last year, and many more tried it without signing up. In its ten years, someone from every country in the world, except for the Vatican City and North Korea, has taken part in the campaign.
Of the people who signed up officially last year, nearly one in five said their main reason was to help the planet.
HEALTHY EATING MONTH Since the 1960s, the amount of meat that humans eat has almost doubled, and farmland now takes up half of all habitable land on Earth. This is an issue because the farming of animals produces greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide, all of which add to global warming. To make room for farms, it often means cutting down trees, which help cool the planet.
Creating plant-based food, though, produces less pollution than animal farming and takes up less space. Toni Vernelli, Veganuary’s International Head of Communications, said: “Veganuary really is driving positive change for animals, people and the planet.”
Attitudes towards plant-based diets are changing, but while there are lots of meatfree and dairy-free options available in shops and restaurants, Matthew Glover told the BBC: “There’s still work to do with vegan cheese!”
A study by BBC Good Food in 2021 said that over 20% of children in the UK aged 5-16 are either vegan, or would like to be. However, another study by The Vegan Society found that of 252 vegan pupils, 73% said they had been teased about their diet at school.