November 1 is World Vegan Day. In fact, the entire month of November is World Vegan Month. The day is marked by debates, exhibitions, seminars, workshops and, of course, tastings! And people usually cite several personal reasons for becoming vegan, including morality, health, and the environment.
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But this day doesn’t have to be just for people who have gone exclusively vegan. It can also be for those who simply want to put more emphasis on plant-based foods in their diet, an approach called “plant-based eating”: focusing on foods of plant origin only.
Before the advent of large food processing companies, veganism was popular because the food choices were limited and did not take much time to prepare.
Modern food processing and technology have made this direction more convenient for more people who would like to try a vegan lifestyle. Even fast food chains are now offering vegan meals — understandably so, but the products in them are heavily processed and may not be entirely healthy. After all, many useful vitamins, fats and amino acids can be destroyed during processing.
In fact, a growing problem in the vegan world is that many of the plant-based products being offered to consumers are highly purified, so they’re not necessarily less unhealthy than many of the products they’re supposed to replace, they’re just less beneficial. It’s like a “one step forward, two steps back” movement for vegan nutrition claims. Ideally, plant-based products should be as unrefined as possible, and processed only to the extent necessary to safely preserve them in a quality form.
There is also another rising food trend, which is an evolution of veganism, called “pegan” – Pegan Diet.
👩🍳 The “Pegan” diet is a hybrid of a paleo diet that focuses on whole foods that may have been caught or gathered, such as fruits, vegetables, meats, and nuts, and a vegan diet, under during which you eat only plant foods.
The Paleolithic Diet (Paleodiet, Stone Age Diet, Hunter-Gatherer Diet) is a modern approach to a diet consisting mainly of plants and animals. Based on the possible ancient diet of humans during the Paleolithic, a historical period lasting 2.5 million years, which ended 10 thousand years ago.
wikipedia
Vegan day activities
Have a vegan party or treat (hey, if all else fails, have a martini party — vegan martinis!);
- Try a new vegan product, such as a meat, cheese, or dairy counterpart that you haven’t tried before;
- Try a vegan recipe;
- Go to a fair or festival to try vegan products;
- Attend a vegan cooking demonstration in person or online;
- Listen to a lecture by industry experts, in person or online;
- Find plant-based fast food restaurants and plant-based grocery stores in your area;
- Choose plant-based dishes on the menu of your favorite pubs and restaurants;
- Learn about Meatless Mondays.
English language resources for vegans
- World Vegan Day
- The Vegan Society
- The Happy Pear (Youtube channel)
- Meatless Mondays (The Monday Campaigns, Johns Hopkins University)
World Vegan Day: History
World Vegan Day was founded in 1994 by Louise Wallis, who at the time was president and chairman of the Vegan Society in England.
It commemorates the founding of the Vegan Society in England by Donald Watson and Elsie Shrigley in 1944. In an interview, Wallis said:
“Creating World Vegan Day was a great way to celebrate the Society’s 50th anniversary. It was easy too, all we had to do was pick a date and announce it. We knew that the Society was founded in November 1944, but we didn’t know the exact date, so I decided to go for November 1st. Partly because I liked the idea of the date coinciding with Halloween and the Day of the Dead, a traditional time for feasting and celebration. Both aptly and favorably. And for me now, it is very disturbing to see how this event has gained popularity all over the world.”
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