Veganuary - the current evidence
Written by our intern, Leonie Tuxhorn
Veganuary is an annual celebration of a living a plant-based animal product-free lifestyle. According to the UK-based non-profit charity “Veganuary”, their reach has increased by more than 48-fold between 2015 and 2022 with 629,000 people actively joining the movement last year (1,2). The term “Veganuary” describes an encouragement to transition to a more plant-based diet during the month of January. Although this statement might sound like just another New Year’s resolution, the number of individuals adhering to a vegan diet has been steadily growing over the last decade. Nevertheless, plant-based diets have been extensively criticised for their nutritional incompleteness and cases of nutrient deficiencies have been observed in the vegan population. Furthermore, though formerly known for its anti-inflammatory properties observed in a whole-food plant-based diet, the emergence of highly processed food products such as meat alternative has been noted as an added concern due to their high content of additives, artificial flavourings, and sodium.
Therefore, the following question arises: What should I make of the Veganuary movement and if I want to introduce a more plant-based lifestyle into my life what points should I consider?
As with any exclusion diet, one main consideration surrounds the lack of knowledge about which nutrients are crucial to cover. The EPIC study, which was published in 2002 and recruited 65429 participants, compared nutrient intakes between different dietary patterns (3). With a considerable cohort size, the results confidently suggested that vegans have a high mean intake of carbohydrates, dietary fibre, polyunsaturated fats, vitamin B1, folate, vitamin C, vitamin E, magnesium and iron while consuming a low amount of protein, saturated fats, retinol, vitamin B12, vitamin D, calcium, iodine, and zinc. Moreover, the mean intake was considerably below the RNI for vitamin B12 and zinc, and the high intake of iron was re-evaluated by its reduced absorption rate due to the missing haem iron group in plant-derived iron. When looking at these results, it should also be considered that the publication occurred before the extensive rise of plant-based ultra-processed convenience foods (4), which could therefore conclude the observation of a healthier, predominantly whole-food, plant-based diet. However, similar evidence was derived from a recent publication by Dimitra R. Bakaloudi et al. (2021), which combined the evidence of 48 studies between 1987 and 2020 (5). Therefore, various aspects should be considered when considering the switch to a plant-based diet and rushing the transition overnight could cause deficiencies long-term.
After doing some key research about nutrient intakes on a plant-based diet, a few different perspectives might arise.
When we look at the topic from the slightly different angle of sustainability, veganism has been shown to contribute significantly less to the toll we are having on the environment than the animal product production and is therefore often considered as a sustainable solution to counteract climate change.
With this in mind, the “EAT-Lancet commission on Food, Planet and Health” combined current evidence from various expert fields in search for a diet that is good for the planet as well as human health. Their results show that these goals will most confidently be met when consuming a diet predominantly derived from plant-based sources with only a small number of calories derived from animal sources such as meat, dairy, fish, and eggs. Although this eating lifestyle has found a widespread supporting audience, it simultaneously caused criticism from some professionals such as the WHO ambassador for Italy Gian Lorenzo Cornado who claims that the diet “has no scientific justification at all” (6). Despite these discrepancies about the validity of a universal diet for the global population, another main conclusion of the EAT-Lancet report described that the focus on whole-food, unprocessed food sources is as important for planetary and human health as a majority of plant sources. In consideration to “Veganuary”, it should therefore also be considered that this movement has been utilised as a major commercial advertisement opportunity for the marketing of vegan food products. The charity’s campaign reports from the last three years depict launches of between 400 and 800 new food products per Veganuary campaign, of which a significant proportion can be accounted to ultra-processed food options (1,2,7).
So, what might this tell you about the exponentially expanding movement of “Veganuary”?
Plant sources are packed with nutrients and should be prioritised in any form of dietary intake. Therefore, focusing on eating your 5 a day is a great way to focus on health as well as reducing your carbon footprint. Restriction diets such as veganism have suggested heart protective and anti-inflammatory benefits in past research, but barriers such as availability, cost as well as nutritional value of convenience products, as well as potential nutrient deficiencies should closely be considered and monitored before commencing on this journey.
References:
Veganuary, 2022. “Campaign Report 2022”. Source: Veganuary
Veganuary, 2018. “Annual Report 2016/17”. Source: Annual Report
Davey, G., Spencer, E., Appleby, P., Allen, N., Knox, K., & Key, T. (2003). “EPIC–Oxford:lifestyle characteristics and nutrient intakes in a cohort of 33 883 meat-eaters and 31 546 non meat-eaters in the UK.” Public Health Nutrition, 6(3), pp. 259-268.
Ohlau, M., Spiller, A. and Risius, A. (2022) 'Plant-Based Diets Are Not Enough? Understanding the Consumption of Plant-Based Meat Alternatives Along Ultra-processed Foods in Different Dietary Patterns in Germany', Frontiers in Nutrition, 9. Source: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fnut.2022.852936
Bakaloudi, D. R., Halloran, A., Rippin, H. L., Oikonomidou, A. C., Dardavesis, T. I., Williams, J., Wickramasinghe, K., Breda, J., & Chourdakis, M. (2021). “Intake and adequacy of the vegan diet. A systematic review of the evidence.” Clinical nutrition, 40(5), pp.3503–3521. Source: Article
Torjesen, I. (2019) 'WHO pulls support from initiative promoting global move to plant based foods', BMJ, 365, pp. l1700. Source: BMJ Article
Veganuary, 2021. “Campaign Report 2021”. Source: Veganuary 21