Veganuary

[notedbiscuits]

Noticed supermarkets are promoting Veganuary. Past couple of years it has been a failure. People don’t want to eat that horrible looking fake meat.

My cousin who is a code checker at one of the big 4 reduced so much fake meat in Jan.

So why do supermarkets promote www.grocerygazette.co.uk/2024/01/30/veganuary-losing-its-lustre/#:~:text=Early%20indications%20have%20revealed%20a,pressures%20to%20general%20Veganuary%20fatigue.

Yes I do agree with you. I think sometimes people fall very heavily into the new year new me thing and veganuary is just plastered everywhere mainstream as the in thing to do. I think if meat eaters gradually decreased their meat intake over time so say one meat free night a week they'd possibly be more inclined to continue it and reduce consumption further.

For me I was always stressing about meat being cooked properly and getting ill off it. So when I ate out I didn't bother with it and then started cutting it out at home. I actually started feeling less run down and lost weight by increasing fruit, veg and fibre intake. I then cut out cows milk as I live near a dairy farm and it put me off completely watching calves being driven through our village on the trailers.

the mistake people slagging off veganuary because of "fake meat" make, is failing to grasp these do not need to be the basis of a vegan diet, no matter what supermarkets try to sell us. Veganuary is about kindness to animals, and being better for the environment, and if you eat a balanced diet your diet will be perfectly healthy,

Healthy vegan food can be cheaply and easily made and need contain no fake meat substitutes (which, incidentally, have been proven to be mostly healthier than the meat equivalents anyway):

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/aug/28/plant-based-meat-alternatives-environment-nutrition#:~:text=Fake%20meat%20products%20also%20perform,fibre%2C%20the%20charity's%20study%20found

Plant-based alternatives to meat are better for the planet and mostly healthier than products such as burgers and sausages made from animals, new research has found.

Environmentally the production of meat substitutes involves far fewer greenhouse gas emissions and much less water than that of meat dishes, according to the Food Foundation. Fake meat products also perform well nutritionally in comparison with the real thing. They contain fewer calories, less saturated fat and more fibre, the charity’s study found.

I often buy vegan options as am severely lactose intolerant. I wish they would stop filling all the vegan options with fake meat and loads of spice and just use some decent pulses and vegetables instead.

I'm not vegan but probably cook more vegan meals for family that anything else tbh. I don't enjoy many fake meat products but I really like What the Cluck pieces in a curry

Oh and Linda McCartney Hoisin Duck is amazing!

I like lentil and pulses. A little tip. If you have Asian supermarkets or an Asian brand section in your supermarket, get the pulses from these.

2kg in Asian supermarket - £3.75. 1kg bag in supermarket £2.45.

Dd and I are vegetarian and we don’t really life fake me either. Give me something made with real ingredients such as pulses etc instead.

Some off the stuff that is in the vegan meals are just as unhealthy for you and more calories if you read the labels carefully.

I ate a family sized vegan trifle last veganuary.

No thanks. Not for me

NOW I’m interested.

Where from, or what recipe?

Are you aiming to improve on last year? Two? Three?

I eat meat but I could eat Linda McCartney burgers forever and never get sick of them. The mozzarella 1/4 pounders are fab. That's a tip for free! (I don't know if they're actually vegan though)

Marketing nonsense that people buy into.

Let's see a fish only month.

A beef only month.

Same story would apply.

Let people make their own minds up and shop in accordance

Morrisons but I haven't seen it since. It was seven pounds and I have zero regrets.

I’m unsure if this should have been in response to me - I didn’t say anything about calories!

Of course - you can make terribly unhealthy calorific meals from meat and dairy, and terribly unhealthy calorific meals that are vegan. It’s totally up to you how healthy you want to be in your life, vegan or not - there will always be extremes of each.

Only one of these though reduces harm to the planet and the animals!

Only one of these though reduces harm to the planet and the animals!

I don't buy into this nonsense either. All you need to do is look into the plight of the honey bee - ferried around the world as pollenater for mono cultures.

My stance on healthy, ethical and environmentally friendly food is buy locally organic produced fruit, vegetables dairy and meat... granted its difficult and expensive.

I do agree however, that we don't have to eat meat every day, 1-2 x week is sufficient. Many of my meat free meals are actually vegan by accident until DC pile the cheese on top!

We do veganuary every year, but its a cheat really as the only things we have to cut out are eggs and honey.

I would have a lot more time for supermarkets and restaurants if they actually promoted and pushed vegetables, how to prepare them into a main meal, how to build up the protein without using UPF

Given we are an island nation its bizaree to me that we dont push for a fish and veg based diet over one that is pushing this awful fake cheese/fake meats

Most of our fish and seafood is exported, leaving us with battered fish.

Im also not sure when or how it became necessary to equate healthy sustiainable eating with veganism, a diet lifestyle I dont think is very healthy actually

Vegetarian diets can be the more optimum for health and personally I would think adding in fish would improve that no end.

We noticed the same last year, loads of vegan stuff in the reduced to clear. It's the same all year round, it's always fake chicken and fake sausages and fake meat strips and plant based ready meals that clearly nobody wants to buy.

I dont believe in promoting veganism as a healthy lifestyle, but what I think should happen is that any promotion of increasing vegetable based meals should have stands in bit supermarkets with collections of ingredients of how to put things together, so for example setting out how you put together a caulfilower, chickpea and sweet potato curry (as one example), you can use a good quality chicken stock to increase nutrients and protein but you dont have to or how to make good quality vegetable soups, again making sure you use good quality stock, but putting the ingredients together as a promotion.

If people arent very good cooks, they dont know what goes together or what options there are or how to cook it, faced with swathes of fruit and veg when normally they might plonk some frozen peas or baked beans on their plate as their 'one of 5 a day', people dont know how to cook veg that well.

Absolutely this.
My husband has been vegan since about 1992. When I cook from scratch, I cook lentils, chickpeas, tofu etc.
His absolute favourite meal is a Linda McCartney pie with frozen hash browns and a tin of baked beans.
We all like a plate of crap sometimes.

Yeah I’m sure all the “horrible fake meat” isn’t sold because no one wants it. Supermarkets are well known for repeatedly putting stuff on shelves that they don’t sell obviously.

if you hate processed meat I’d suggest strongly avoiding several isles in supermarkets , lest you see a sausage roll or chicken nugget and start to feel ill. Heaven forbid you see some ham. Safer just to order online and put a safety filter on.

Fake meat isn't the only vegan/veggie option though.

This.

I hear it so often on here and IRL. When I ordered my vegan meal at a family dinner over Xmas, I got told how unhealthy vegans are as they live on fake meats and processed rubbish. This from a family who mostly eat ultra processed food and the meat they eat most is bacon, sausages and chicken nuggets. The processed stuff only seems to matter when it’s vegan. I wasn’t even ordering fake meat, it was a vegetable based meal.

I actually rarely eat fake meats/upf’s and most of the vegans I know don’t either. We all eat lots of beans, lentils, tofu, nuts, seeds, fruit and veg with occasional upfs, a lot less than any meat eater I know who feel they can comment on my diet. On the couple of occasions I’ve actually responded to their comments and said their diet isn’t very healthy, I get ‘oh preachy vegan’. Lol. How about they don’t comment negatively on me being vegan and I wouldn’t say anything back. They seen the think they’re can comment in any way they like and not be answered back

Obviously I’d rather animals weren’t killed to eat, but I don’t comment on what others eat, I’m not sure why so many people think my diet is up for discussion just because I order a vegan meal. It’s happened so many times with people over the years.

My only issue with veganuary is that my local supermarket often runs out of tofu and oat and soya drink and yogurt. They need to order more when they’re pushing vegan products.

Some restaurants don’t do much veg as most people don’t like veg.

i love vegetables. Only dislike about 5 vegetables

My veggie friends don’t like certain restaurants that have changed their burgers and sausages from vegetable/pulses ones - spicy bean burger etc to fake meat!