Veganuary: Start 2021 with a vegan diet
New Year’s resolutions: First we love them, then we hate them! Many people view the new year as a time for new beginnings and intend to start it as healthily as possible. A conscious diet and a reduction in meat consumption are popular resolutions. However, far too often they fall to the back of the to-do-list until they fall off completely. To combat this, the non-profit organisation and campaign Veganuary has found the perfect solution. Veganuary calls on people around the world to start the year with 31 days of a plant-based diet. Veganuary provides all participants with delicious recipes and practical tips on how to get started – goodbye excuses! No good reason stands in the way of a healthy, tasty and vegan January now. In this article, we’ll tell you more about Veganuary, why you should join the movement and where to find tips for your vegan adventure.
Veganuary: What’s behind the movement?
Veganuary was launched in the UK in 2014 as both a charity and a campaign. Since then, almost one million people from 192 countries have taken part in the 31-day vegan challenge. Celebrities including Joaquin Phoenix and Paul McCartney have long been supporters and encourage their fans to take part in Veganuary every year. The organisation collaborates closely with companies to expand their existing vegan product range, create new menus in restaurants and promote Veganuary and vegan products overall.
“Our mission is to inspire and support people to try vegan, drive corporate change, and create a global mass movement championing compassionate food choices with the aim of ending animal farming, protecting the planet and improving human health.”
Veganuary
Good reasons to try vegan
It’s good for the climate:
Our diet, the environment and climate change are directly linked. According to the German Federal Office for the Environment, industrial animal husbandry is the main source of greenhouse gases. Methane emissions in particular, which can be traced back almost entirely to cattle and dairy cow farming, account for 77 percent of total agricultural emissions. Accordingly, reduced consumption of certain meats and milk-based products can drastically improve your environmental impact.
It’s good for your health:
A balanced plant-based diet can not only be varied, colourful and delicious, but is also said to be beneficial to health. According to Veganuary, participants consistently report feeling more energetic, having better digestion and improved sleep quality during the 31-day challenge. 98 per cent of participants would even recommend Veganuary. However, it is important to mention that nutrition is something extremely individual and ultimately only your own experience counts. Veganuary offers the perfect setting to get familiar with a plant-based diet and to experience potential health benefits first-hand.
It’s good for animals:
The last point is quite obvious, but still absolutely worth mentioning. The decision for a plant-based diet is at the same time a decision against animal suffering. Especially in factory farming, the animals’ basic needs are severely neglected and their freedom of movement is extremely restricted. In Germany around 763 million animals are kept in factory farms every year and slaughtered after a short period of time.
Overfishing of the oceans is also a major problem. Due to ever-increasing fishing, more fish are caught than can grow back through natural reproduction. According to the WWF, about 30 percent of the world’s fish stocks are overfished. However, increased fishing not only leads to disturbed ecosystems, but also to more ghost nets in our seas.
Every step counts!
We find it important to note that Veganuary is not about radically changing your lifestyle or becoming a flawless vegan. It’s already a big step to simply analyse your diet, its impact on the environment and to reevaluate your values. This can make a huge difference! Whether you leave out certain products, go vegetarian on certain days or fully dive into the vegan adventure, we all have different backgrounds and requirements. Nobody is perfect, and we all go at our own pace. Veganuary takes you by the hand and provides you with recipes and information. Take another look at their website, where you will find everything about a plant-based diet and more facts about the 31-day challenge.
Join the movement: Ready to join? | Veganuary
Team Bracenet x Veganuary
We at Bracenet also want to dedicate January to going vegan! We are incredibly happy to make a positive contribution and to support the mission of Veganuary.
Our team has decided to join the challenge and to focus more on this topic in January. Join us! On our Instagram channel, we will inform you every week of January about topics related to the vegan lifestyle, clear up misconceptions and share facts with you. We are very excited about sharing ideas, thoughts and recipes with you!
You’re already vegan and are looking for other challenges for your New Year’s resolution? We have some ideas for you! Why don’t you try reducing your plastic waste – here are 31 tips on how to avoid plastic.
