Whether you've got your health or the environment on your mind as you make your new year's resolutions, going vegan for a month could be the way to start – and it's becoming easier than ever.
Is 2020 going to be the year for a brand new you? Perhaps not, but it would at least be nice to get off to a good start.
For many it's been a week of turkey roast, turkey sandwiches, turkey curry (and now you remember why you go a whole year without cooking turkey again), pigs in blankets (which, let's face it, are pigs in pigs), dairy milk chocolate and cheese boards. A break from over-indulging in all of that over the next few weeks might actually feel welcome.
Last year, a quarter of a million people signed up to Veganuary: cutting out meat, dairy, and other animal ingredients from what they consume for the 31 days of January. This year, organisers believe that 350,000 people to take the pledge – and they estimate that's only 10% of how many are actually doing it.
What you're putting into your body isn't the only reason you might be persuaded to give it a go. Polling ahead of the general election found that voters ranked their concerns about the environment above the economy, education and immigration. One in five mentioned the environment and pollution unprompted – up from just 2% doing so in 2012.
What does meat and dairy have to do with the environment?
Analysis shows that meat and dairy provide the world's population with just 18% of its calories and 37% of protein, and yet uses 83% of farmland. It produces 60% of food-related greenhouse gas emissions.
A major report commissioned by the United Nations this year added significant weight to the notion that more people could be fed if individuals started eating less meat.
It sounds difficult. What do vegans eat?
Protein is the obvious question, and fear that it might be all tofu, quinoa and lentils. Which isn't to say those particular foods can't all be very enjoyable, but to take your first step into veganism, it may be less daunting once you realise the protein sources you may already be eating outside of meat.
Other pulses providing protein are chickpeas (including hummus), garden peas, and beans (including baked beans). Nuts work as a snack or for some added flavour and crunch in a meal – and even peanut butter counts. Many vegetables themselves also offer protein.
The easiest way into veganism can be to think of what foods already are – or easily can become – plant-based. Curry, chilli, stew and stir fry are just a few examples of flavoursome dishes that require little leap of imagination if they're already on your meal plan as a meat eater. Making this the starting point, rather than basing your meal around a meat substitute and finding it doesn't taste quite the same as meat, can be a revelation.
The last 12 months has seen some major product news for vegans, from Flora becoming dairy-free, to the famous Greggs sausage roll offering a cheap snack on the go. But food chains and restaurants have been continually growing their offerings, and the trend doesn't look like stopping.
While vegan junk food might defeat the health objectives, it's not necessarily worse than an alternative meat-based takeaway. Linda McCartney's chicken bucket, Nando's Perinaise and McDonald's Veggie Dippers are just some of the fast-food products set to launch, in addition to the already popular – and very meat-like – Beyond Burger now widely available.
It doesn't sound much of a laugh though!
Often a bit of forward thought may be required, and indeed retraining your brain to not go to habitual foods and recipes. And even then, at times, options may be limited. No, that doesn't sound much fun, even once you've learned your way around it.
One person who has managed to reframe the whole idea of both eating and not eating meat is Simon Amstell in his film Carnage (available on BBC iPlayer), which has been described as "the world's first vegan comedy that's actually funny".
Carnage is an almost perfect example of how to push a worthwhile message without being preachy. And in what must be a world-first for vegan activism, it even takes the piss out of vegans.
Max Benwell, The Independent
Carnage, released in 2017, foretells what the world could look like in 50 years' time. When it was released, it might have been hard to believe that a man who very successfully drives racing cars would soon launch a vegan burger bar in the real world. So who's to say whether this may in fact be something like the future.
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