All About Veganuary!

Veganuary runs throughout the calendar month of January. This is traditionally a time for New Year resolutions, which commonly revolve around a desire to be more healthy and lose weight after the meat and dairy-heavy excesses of the festive season. As the Christmas bells fade and family and friends part after spending time together, Veganuary brings people from all over the world together in a ready-made online community – ideal for making new friends, swapping recipes and tips about the best vegan sausages or simply venting about missing bacon! You can sign up to Veganuary here.

Veganuary is a non-profit organisation in the UK. It was founded by two Brits, Jane Land and Matthew Glover. The name was chosen as a splicing of the words ‘vegan’ and ‘January’, and the first event took place in 2014. Veganuary raises its funds through crowdfunding, and this is usually a great success, as veganism tends to make its converts quite evangelical (Q: how do you know if someone is vegan? A: They’ll tell you!)

Veganuary is now one of the main drivers towards the growth of the vegan movement worldwide, and people have signed up to take part in every country in the world apart from North Korea, Swaziland and Vatican City. Where once veganism was very rare indeed, it’s rapidly becoming widely accepted and increasingly well-catered for. It’s estimated that at least half a million people have become full-time vegans after participating in Veganuary. And with spectacular advances in food technology, it’s now easier and easier to get all the nutrition a body needs, at the same time as having access to some fantastic, tasty products.

Veganuary aims to educate people about the food they consume, excite them about the health benefits and possibilities of a vegan lifestyle, and bring people together in a worldwide vegan community, inspiring a cultural shift away from seeing animals as products to be consumed. The ultimate aim is to convert people to full-time veganism, but Veganuary also gives ‘flexitarians’ the opportunity to explore the options if they have decided to eat less meat and dairy.

It seems to be working – McDonalds, Burger King and KFC have all introduced special Veganuary menu items, and the vegan food industry is undergoing a renaissance, going from strength to strength and offering fantastic, tasty new products every week from plant-based sources only.

Although it’s just as easy to eat unhealthily as a vegan, it has been proved again and again that a plant-based diet is extremely beneficial for the human body, as long as good all-round nutrition is maintained.

Plant-based diets are ideal for helping to maintain a healthy weight. Plants are full of fibre, and this helps to maintain a healthy gut and reduce inflammation, meaning nutrients are better absorbed to help boost the body’s immune system. A study conducted in 2009 concluded that on average, vegans had the lowest BMI, and as obesity vastly increases the risk from several types of cancer, this means veganism significantly reduces your cancer risk. The incidence of diabetes, heart disease, stroke and even mental health disorders is also far lower amongst vegans.

Veganism is better for the environment and the planet in almost every way. Breeding animals for meat accounts for around one-fifth of all harmful greenhouse gas emissions, and more than half of worldwide emissions of nitrous oxide, which is nearly 300 times as harmful as carbon dioxide. Reducing meat consumption will reduce climate change. If we get our protein from plant-based instead of animal-based sources, our use of land, water and resources in general, decreases significantly, bringing us back to a kinder, more sustainable existence on the planet.

At the same time as animal agriculture is contributing to global warming and killing off the world’s coral reefs, fish stocks are being massively depleted by indiscriminate commercial fishing operations, and some species are in very real danger of disappearing altogether. Coupled with the destruction of rainforests to create areas for livestock to graze, it pays to bear in mind that vegans have less than half of the carbon foorprint of meat-eaters!

Several of our staff here at Healthy Supplies are vegan, vegetarian, flexitarian or just trying to eat and live more healthily in general. We’ve built up an impressively huge and unique collection of vegan recipes, which we’ve created and tested ourselves, that will delight your family and friends and make the meat-eaters very jealous! You can find them here. There’s also an absolutely massive range of all kinds of tasty and healthy products for vegans or anyone thinking of taking the plunge and taking part in the next Veganuary challenge – you can find vegan supplies here.