Why You Should Try Vegan For 7 Days This January
In 2023, make a New Year resolution that matters to animals, the planet, and your health. From January 1st, step your toe into vegan living with the ultimate 7-Day Challenge.
1. You’ll Be Saving Animals
Most people believe that the animals we eat experience long, happy lives and painless deaths - but this is far from the truth. Most land animals such as cows, pigs, and chickens spend their entire lives suffering on factory farms, where they are kept in dark, cramped, and disease-ridden conditions.
Once the animals reach ‘slaughter-weight’ - which is a fraction of their natural lifespan - they are piled into trucks and driven for hours without food or water, in all weather conditions, to the slaughterhouse. Slaughterhouses are never quiet, painless places. Animals fight and scream for their lives; most have their throats slit, often while they are conscious, and some animals are still alive when they’re skinned, or de-feathered in boiling hot water. Most of these individuals are no more than a few months old.
Every day, more than 200 million land animals and three billion aquatic animals are killed for food around the world. But by simply leaving animals off your plate, you’ll be taking a powerful stand against the exploitation of animals. As an individual, that means you will be saving nearly 200 animals every year.
NY resolution: Try vegan for 7 days from January 1st.
2. You’ll be Protecting the Environment
Our planet is currently facing huge environmental threats, and animal agriculture massively contributes to this.
Did you know that farming animals for food plays a huge role in land and water degradation, deforestation, and biodiversity loss, and is responsible for more greenhouse gases than the world’s transportation systems combined?
The devastating effect that animal agriculture is having on our planet is leading wildlife experts and climate change campaigners - from Greta Thunberg to David Attenborough - to urge us all to reconsider our habits and diets to help prevent climate catastrophe.
In fact, a global shift towards a vegan diet is necessary to combat the worst effects of climate change, according to the United Nations, and research from the University of Oxford shows that going vegan is the “single biggest way” to reduce your impact on the planet.
NY resolution: Try vegan for 7 days from January 1st.
3. You’ll Be Improving Your Own Health
As well as being kinder to animals and the planet, eating vegan can also have numerous benefits for your health.
The science is clear that following a plant-based diet is associated with a lower risk of illnesses including heart disease, cancer, and other serious diseases. Rich in nutrients and significantly lower in saturated fat than animal products, a vegan diet can also boost your immune system, reduce inflammation, and help you maintain a healthy body weight.
And, it’s our collective health at stake, too: the United Nations warns that global demand for meat consumption, and intensive animal farming, are among the seven major factors responsible for the increasing threat of new animal-to-human diseases, such as COVID-19, Ebola, and MERS.
NY resolution: Try vegan for 7 days from January 1st.
4. You’ll Discover Delicious Foods
Credit: Beyond Meat
Chances are that lots of your favorite foods are already vegan, can be easily adapted to be vegan, or have tasty vegan alternatives available.
Love eating a whole tub of Ben & Jerry’s to yourself? Try their many dairy-free flavors - our favorite is “Milk” & Cookies. Like meaty meals packed full of protein? Try the realistic Beyond Meat brand that has all the texture and taste of your traditional animal products. We love their famous ‘bloody’ Beyond Burger that’ll convince even the most ardent meat eater.
And like cooking up a storm in your kitchen? Famous faces from Tabitha Brown to Natalie Portman are showing online audiences how exciting vegan cooking can be - just have a look at our recipes for proof.
NY resolution: Try vegan for 7 days from January 1st.
5. You’ll Step into a Whole New World of Vegan Fashion and Beauty
Credit: AERA
The beauty and fashion industries are devastating for animals. In fashion, animals are killed for fur, skin, wool, and silk, to create clothes, bags, shoes, and other items. And the numbers are overwhelming: from cows to crocodiles, the leather industry alone slaughters over one billion animals every year. When it comes to cosmetics, more than half a million animals including rabbits, guinea pigs, and dogs, are still subjected to cruel tests, despite the availability of humane and progressive alternatives.
Thankfully, innovative vegan fashion options and cruelty-free beauty products are on the rise, as more and more people are choosing to make conscious decisions when it comes to their clothes and makeup. By choosing plant-based living, you’ll discover everything from apple leather boots to faux fur scarfs.
We Have A Favor To Ask…
Species Unite amplifies well-researched solutions to some of the most abusive animal industries operating today.
At this crucial moment, with worldwide momentum for change building, it’s vital we share these animal-free solutions with the world - and we need your help.
We’re a nonprofit, and so to keep sharing these solutions, we’re relying on you - with your support, we can continue our essential work in growing a powerful community of animal advocates this year.
More stories:
Species Unite
A collection of stories of those who fight the good fight on behalf of animals.
The footage was reportedly recorded at Marshall BioResources in North Rose, New York, where up to 22,000 dogs - mostly beagles - are being bred for animal experimentation.