Veganuary (join the plant-based revolution!)
Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’ll know that Veganuary starts each year with a massive campaign for everyone to try some plant-based foods through the month.
Everyone gets involved, with nearly all brands launching new products in January, and supermarkets bringing out more vegan options. The idea of course is that you’ll feel so good, that you’ll continue eating more plant foods throughout the year.
The campaign started by two marketing professionals is now huge, with people worldwide getting involved. Sign up on the website to get 10 meal plans, a recipe e-book and 31 coaching emails. All completely free!
Veganuary has been instrumental in changing people’s perceptions of veganism from socks-and-sandals-wearing hippies who ate nothing but lentils, to mainstream acceptance.
Before cooking, read up on food safety for people and pets (many foods are unsafe near animal friends). Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps, as acids could harm compost creatures. It’s okay to put them in food waste bins (made into biogas).
For tinned foods, fully remove lids (put inside) or pop ring-pulls back over holes (and pinch top opening closed) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
England is a country that is generally batty about animal welfare. Yet most animal products sold here are from factory farms, something that nearly everyone does not agree with.
Yet in a country of 60 million people, we literally don’t have enough land for everyone to eat free-range. So even if you are not vegan, it pays to go plant-based most of the time. Something even meat-eating chefs like Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall and Gordon Ramsay now promote.
Health benefits of eating more plants
All nutrition experts now say that plant-based eating is good for our health. As long as being cholesterol-free (the only ‘good cholesterol’ is made by your body), this way of eating can lower blood pressure, and manage weight better, if done well.
Vegans have far less chance of diabetes and some cancers, and even less chance of dementia. And even impotence (due to blood flow being better, from eating solely plant foods). American food campaigner says good health can be summed up in six words: Eat food. Mostly plants. Eat less.
Visit Veganuary’s simple nutrition guide, to know how to get protein, calcium, iron and iodine etc. This is a real case of media experts offering alternatives to conventional media, which never covers issues of where most meat comes from, and that there are better and more compassionate ways to eat.
Just take an all-round vegan sustainable supplement to cover your bases. Before taking supplements, check with GP if pregnant/nursing or for medical conditions.
Eating plants uses less land & water
The planet breathes far easier from plant-based diets. Mostly because livestock farming is one of the main causes of climate change gases like methane, as most meat comes from factory farms.
It takes takes far more land, water and energy to eat meat over plant foods, which can feed far more people on less land.
Eating plants is kinder to animals
Many people these days are choosing plant-based lifestyles, simply because they no longer wish to support industries that harm and kill innocent creatures (even the free-range dairy and egg industries sometimes kill male calves and chicks soon after birth, due to being of no financial value). Some bees are even killed in the honey-making industry.
Vegans simply prefer to avoid grey areas. And knowing that realistically some people continue to eat animal foods, the less of us that do, means the animals that are raised, will at least be free-range and organic, and have better lives.
Building a support network
Connecting with others is sometimes good for new vegans, so you don’t feel like an island. We are still living in a society where many people still believe that being vegan means living on lentil salad, with fruit salad for dessert.
There are lots of communities online, and vegan supper clubs and other ideas, to make the transition far easier. There are even consultancies for chefs, who haven’t a clue, but want to help!
Eating out should be easy, but it is still work for some people, who find that many chefs don’t know that there are likely over 1000 cookbooks, with recipes for every kind of cuisine from gluten-free to Africa, from Italian to Mexican, and from no-bake desserts to elaborate cakes.
If you do find a place you like, then leave a good review, and thank the chef for making the effort. There are amazing restaurants that are not just vegan, but also serve amazing vegan food. Let’s support them, to encourage more!
How to support Veganuary campaigns
Veganuary Clothing sells organic cotton t-shirts in black or white, made with green energy and sent in zero-waste packaging (at end of life, just return for recycling, and it’s made into another one).
Organic cotton costs a little more, but the fibres last longer, as they have no been treated with chemicals. It also safely washes in the machine without releasing microplastics, and growing organic cotton is better for the planet, and farmers.
We have to be careful of ‘celebrity support’ sometimes, or else people may start following the lifestyles of celebrities that wear fur etc. However, it pays to know that many popular household names are on board, to support the campaign.
You may even find one or two of their favourite recipes, in Veganuary’s free recipe cookbook!
Jasmine Harman is the lovely presenter from Channel 4 Series A Place in the Sun‘. She began to rethink her eating habits when she had a baby, realising that she did not want to be ‘stealing milk’ from the baby of another species.
Peter Egan is one of England’s foremost animal welfare campaigners. Younger viewers likely know him from Downton Abbey. And for playing the main character’s father in the excellent crime drama series Unforgotten.
Older viewers likely best know him as the charming smooth hairdresser, who played the next-door-neighbour of Richard Briers’ character in the classic sitcom Ever Decreasing Circles.
Born to Armenian parents, Patrik Baboumian is a German vegan bodybuilder and known as ‘the strongest man in the world’. He recently broke his own record to lift 560kg. To give you an idea, here are a few things that weigh 500kg:
- A small car
- A Harley Davidson (and its rider!)
- A grand piano
- A light aircraft
- A heavy horse (not a thing, a being!)
Modern vegan animal welfare campaigners
- Bryan Adams (singer)
- Lewis Hamilton
- Ricky Gervais
- Joaquin Phoenix
- Chris Packham
- Alicia Silverstone
- Deborah Meaden
Recipes from the Heart (by Pamela Anderson)
Recipes from the Heart is a book by one of Veganuary’s top-profile supporters. Pamela Anderson is far more than a Baywatch star, she has a heart as big as her boobs! This collection of recipes is based around seasonal produce.
Learn how to make:
- Chicory Dandelion Coffee
- Whipped Cranberry Porridge
- Green Goddess Mason Jar Salad
- Tomato Galette
- Anti-Inflammatory Lentil Soup
- Minty Pea Potato Pierogis
- Maple-Glazed Cinnamon Rolls
- Rustic Sourdough Loaves
- Fougasse (French bread) in Herby Pistou
About Pamela Anderson
Born in Canada (she’s almost 60 but doesn’t look it!), Pamela wrote to the former Canadian Prime Minister to ask him to ban the baby seal cull, which he never did. She’s of German-Finnish ancestry (she used to speak Finnish – one of the world’s most difficult languages) and says she would like to revert to her proper name of Hyytiäinen.
Pamela is also a survivor. She was molested by a female babysitter for years as a child, then raped age 12 by a man, and gang-raped by her boyfriend and six friends when she was 14. She went vegetarian as a teenager, after being upset when her father bought back a bloodied deer he had hunted.
Now back living in Canada (where she publicly endorses the Green Party), Pamela is never shy in standing up to power. She even wrote to President Putin to ask him to save the whales, and met with Kremlin officials to discuss animal welfare in Russia (representing IFAW). And has campaigned to ask French officials to ban foie gras.
Those who dismiss Pamela Anderson as a former swimsuit actress, should compare how much they have done for a kinder world, to her (especially after all she has been through).
Dr.Vegan Vitamin B12 (good for vegans)
Nutritional yeast flakes are high in vitamin B12
Dr.Vegan Vitamin B12 is a quality supplement, the first order is sold in a refillable metal tin. You then just order refills in eco-friendly pouches after that, to save on waste and save money. Subscribe online for big savings, once you have the first order with the tin.
Vitamin B12 supports red blood cells, for better immunity and energy and good immunity and nervous systems. 86% of vegans are deficient (and so are many older meat-eating adults)
Take 1 capsule daily with or without food, ideally in the morning or lunchtime, to fuel your day ahead.
Always check with your GP before taking supplements if on medication (also for women if pregnant or nursing). Keep them away from children and pets, and recycle unused supplements and medicines at pharmacies (never flush them down the loo).
When to expect improvements
Within a few days or at least a few weeks. These improvements will be more, if you are a vegan, and start eating properly!
Join the transparent label campaign
The Transparent Label Campaign is a worldwide movement set up by US supplement company Terraseed, to demand that supplement companies list full ingredients, so people can avoid ones with gelatine, fish, collagen, creatine and magnesium stearate (mostly in vitamin D and omega 3 supplements – which cause the death of 24 billion creatures each year).
Also boycott krill supplements (you can easily get omega 3 fatty acids from nuts, seeds or algae supplements). Krill is an important food for whales, seals, penguins and fish, and removal causes by-catch of other creatures.
Simple tips to get more vitamin B12
Vitamin B12 is in organic soil. But these days most people are deficient (including 86% of vegans, because you don’t rip up carrots and eat the oil with them these days. It’s a very important vitamin, but older meat-eating women are actually most at risk, due to not absorbing it properly.
It’s not found in plant foods really, so it’s important to include in a multi-vitamin or a specialist one (don’t overdose!)
5 signs you may be low in vitamin B12
- You always feel tired. This is because vitamin B12 is needed to transport oxygen around your body, via red blood cells.
- You feel dizzy or out of breath. Again due to red blood cells not transporting enough oxygen around your body.
- Mouth ulcers or sore tongue. This is a common early sign of deficiency.
- Pale yellow tinge (to skin and whites of eyes) can be early signs of anaemia, which can start with vitamin B12 deficiency
- Pins & needles (again often an early sign of deficiency)
