7 Interesting Things about Veganism
Whether it’s for health reasons, environmental concerns, or a love for animals, people have a variety of incentives to live a vegan lifestyle—and every year, vegan and vegetarian diets are becoming steadily more popular. Let’s explore some fascinating facts about veganism.
People have been eating vegan for centuries.
It may seem that veganism is a uniquely modern type of diet that reflects contemporary concerns about the environment, our health, and animal welfare. But that’s not the case. There are historic records going back over 2,000 years of people avoiding meat and animal products in favor of plants. The ancient Greek philosopher Pythagoras of Samos mentioned vegetarianism in the context of promoting the idea of benevolence among all species. Buddhists, Hindus, and Jains have also embraced vegetarianism for millennia.
Of course, these people weren’t always called vegans. The word vegan arose in 1944 when a British man named Donald Watson who belonged to a local vegetarian community left to pursue a stricter way of eating, forming the Vegan Society.
Vegan diets can be rich in protein and calcium.
It’s a common misconception that you can’t get sufficient protein eating vegan food. Not so! The truth is that some plant-based proteins have more of this nutrient per calorie when compared to meat. Vegans can meet their daily protein requirement by consuming beans, quinoa, broccoli, lentils, mushrooms, nuts, pasta, peas, soy products, and a range of other foods.
Another fallacy is that a vegan diet is devoid of calcium because cheese and dairy products aren’t allowed. However, there are other solid sources of calcium, many of them the same foods that contain good amounts of protein: nut and oat milks, green leafy vegetables, soy foods, beans, and chia and sesame seeds.
Vegan eating can protect against disease.
Nobel Prize winner Elizabeth Blackburn and other scientists published a study suggesting that a plant-based diet can cause hundreds of genes to change, supporting those that prevent disease and disrupting genes implicated in serious illnesses like cancer and heart disease.
Additionally, plant-based diets are associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes. Furthermore, removing meat and animal products from your diet effectively cuts out saturated fat, which is linked with higher risk of obesity and hearth disease.
Going vegan might be the best thing you can do for the environment.
It may surprise you to know that by following a vegan diet you can reduce your personal carbon footprint by a staggering 73%. This was found by a study at the University of Oxford in England. Researchers declared that switching to vegan food was “the single biggest” move an individual could make.
Eschewing meat and dairy doesn’t only reduce the greenhouse gas emissions from your diet; it also conserves the planet’s precious water resources and forest land. This is because raising animals for meat and dairy requires an incredible amount of water and land.
Just eating less meat and dairy has a positive impact.
People who aren’t vegan 100% of the time are still doing something good for the planet and their own physical health. For instance, you might decide to cook a meatless meal once or twice a week, or try a new dish at a vegan or vegetarian restaurant. Dabbling in veganism in this way can be beneficial for your body. It can also cut down on your personal contribution to greenhouse gases and the use of water and land.
Alcohol is not always vegan.
If you thought that alcohol is part of a vegan diet, that’s not always true (unfortunately). Alcohol is plant-based. Grapes are used in producing wine, and wheat is used to make beer, for example. Nevertheless, alcohol can come into contact with animal products during the production process.
For example, beer, cider, and wine are filtered before they’re bottled and this is where egg whites, gelatine, and a material called isinglass that comes from fish bladders may be involved. Distilled spirits and hard liquors are mostly vegan, however, though some flavored versions may include creams and honey. The best approach is to find out what’s involved in the production process before choosing your alcoholic drink. The website Barnivore is a good resource for checking whether a particular alcohol product is vegan.
Clothing can be vegan, too.
Many who practice a vegan lifestyle are often very careful in their choice of what to wear as well as what to eat. These individuals are keenly aware of how animals can be exploited by humans not only for food, but for clothing. For this reason, most vegans do not wear or purchase clothing and accessories made from fur, leather, suede, wool, silk from silkworms, cashmere, and down feathers. They look for vegan fabrics like cotton, hemp, and linen.
These are only some interesting facts about veganism—if you’re curious about going vegan, it can be fun to read about and explore different aspects of the lifestyle and its history, like famous vegans, the early origins of the modern movement in the 1800s, surprising vegan foods, and more. So, what’s your favorite fact about veganism?