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Can a vegan diet help your health and the environment?

It’s Veganuary! Since 2014, the Veganuary campaign has been encouraging people to pledge to try a vegan diet for a month. It aims to show how easy and delicious it can be to eat a plant-based diet, and highlights the climate arguments and compassionate values that drive many people to go vegan. Thousands of people sign up for Veganuary online and receive nutrition information, recipes, motivation and support. 

January is a time for new starts and New Year’s resolutions, and an estimated 35 million people in the UK will be starting 2024 with a promise to themselves to make a positive change to their health and diet. Veganuary, an annual challenge that promotes a vegan lifestyle, has become increasingly popular with more and more people taking up the challenge every year.

The January 2024 campaign supported 1.8 million people to take part. There is some evidence that Veganuary helps people make changes that last, with 80% of people surveyed sustaining significant diet changes six months later.

Veganuary’s mission is “to inspire and support people to try vegan, drive corporate change, and create a global mass movement championing compassionate food choices with the aim of ending animal farming, protecting the planet, and improving human health”.

Veganuary and your health

In surveys of participants who have stuck to a vegan diet, Veganuary reports that people experience health benefits, including to mood, skin, and weight.

Well-planned diets should follow robust and clinically proven healthy eating guidelines, such as those endorsed by the British Dietetic Association and the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics.

A growing body of research shows that a vegan diet is suitable for every age and stage of life. Eating a vegan diet doesn’t mean you have to go without. With so many varied food choices and the inclusion of nutritional powerhouses like wholegrains, pulses, fruit, nuts, seeds and vegetables, which are packed full of beneficial fibre, vitamins and minerals, a vegan diet can have a major positive impact on your overall health.

Possible health benefits of a vegan diet

A balanced plant-based diet will usually include a variety of pulses, vegetables, wholegrains, nuts and seeds. Studies comparing people who eat a plant-based diet and people who eat meat and dairy have found that vegans and vegetarians have a lower risk of heart disease and are more likely to be a healthy weight. Eating a healthy vegan diet:

There is more advice on getting a fully balanced diet when going vegan in the Vegan Eatwell Guide.

Veganuary and the environment

The motivation for signing up for Veganuary might come from concerns about animal welfare or health, but growing numbers of people are becoming aware that a vegan diet can be good for the environment too. Adopting a plant-based diet can significantly reduce an individual’s carbon footprint.

Animal farming and the production of animal-derived products has an enormous carbon footprint and places a significant burden on the planet in several ways. The amount of grain needed to feed animals uses vast tracts of land and that land use contributes to deforestation, habitat loss and species extinction, and uses vast quantities of water in the process. There is also the carbon impact of transporting and processing meat and dairy products. Wider adoption of plant-based diets would reduce these climate and biodiversity impacts.

So Veganuary seems like a win, win all round!

Ambassadors of Veganuary include celebrities such as Billie Eilish, Paul McCartney, Alicia Silverstone and Deborah Meaden. The Mayor of New York, Eric Adams, is also an advocate of plant-based diets, and having transformed his own health, he is committed to bringing the benefits to communities in New York. Mayor Adams has transformed the food environment of New York Hospitals, serving plant-based food by default in 11 hospitals, not only reducing carbon emissions and showcasing healthy delicious food, but also saving money. 

The NHS has a long way to go to match this ambition and impact, but many staff are changing their own diets, and working to ensure that food is included in sustainability targets made by their organisations. The New Year is a great opportunity to support colleagues and patients to make positive changes and to ensure they have the most up-to-date evidence-based information on why and how to shift to a more plant-based diet. 

The CSH Food and Nutrition Sustainability Network held an online event to support those staff thinking about promoting Veganuary in their own workplaces. This was led by Dr LJ Smith, who has promoted both Veganuary and No Meat May at King’s College Hospital in London for the last few years alongside colleague Dr Shireen Kassam. LJ shared her experience of what has worked, and what has not, provided a timeline for preparing in advance, and shared resources such as posters, film recommendations and answers to common questions. 

Anyone engaged in fighting the climate crisis must consider their dietary choices. Without reducing reliance on meat and dairy, we have no chance of staying within planetary boundaries and are guaranteed to breach 1.5C of warming with catastrophic consequences. As healthcare professionals we should also consider direct consequences of animal agriculture on public health issues of air and water pollution, rising rates of antimicrobial resistance and increased zoonotic pandemic disease.   

The good news is that food is something we have control over as individuals, and is something we can take action on today and every day. Our potential collective power is huge.

For more inspiration, why not watch the recording of the CSH Food and Nutrition Sustainability Network event here:

And if you want to learn more about Veganuary or get involved in one of the conversations happening right now around vegan diets, health and the environment with experts, clinicians, patients and other interested people, then sign up to our networks and join the conversation.   

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