HOW TO GO VEGAN Veganism seems to be the buzzword of 2019, from the record-breaking number of people who signed up for ‘Veganuary’ this year, to the stream of new vegan products appearing on our supermarket shelves, to an ever-increasing parade of celebrities adopting a plant based diet, including Beyonce, Will.I.Am, Lewis Hamilton, Liam Hemsworth and Joaquin Phoenix. One in eight people in the UK are vegan or vegetarian, and 21% of UK residents identify themselves as ‘flexitarian’, meaning they are actively reducing their meat consumption. But what does being vegan actually mean? Veganism isn’t actually a new thing, and the idea of not consuming animal products has been around for a long time. The Greek mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras didn’t eat meat, along with Leonardo da Vinci, Charles Darwin and Mahatma Gandhi. The term ‘vegan’ was first used in 1944, the year the Vegan Society was founded, who define veganism as the belief that ‘man should live without exploiting animals’. As well as ethical reasons, people choose to adopt a vegan diet as part of a healthier lifestyle. Studies indicate that a well-balanced vegan diet contains all the protein, fat, carbohydrate, vitamins and minerals a human needs, with low amounts of saturated fat, which results in lower cholesterol, blood pressure and rates of type 2 diabetes. The health positives associated with a vegan diet are reflected in the increasing number
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of athletes choosing to eat plant based, from footballers to tennis players to boxers and MMA fighters. Another benefit of veganism is the reduction of our impact of the environment. Industrial farming practices adopted in the 20th century - and the waste generated by animal agriculture -
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contributes to species extinction, global warming and deforestation, produces widespread pollution and ocean dead zones, and uses massive amounts of water. With so many people on the planet, the way we eat isn’t sustainable, and a vegan diet aims to preserve the planet as much as possible for the next generation.
