Going vegan is the best New Year’s resolution anyone can make - Tania Isabel
If you’ve ever declared your New Year’s Resolution on January 1, only to back track days later when your sweet tooth overwhelms you, a ‘sale’ sign proves too tempting, or your bed calls more loudly than the gym, I’ve got great news for you.
There’s one New Year’s resolution you can make that’s not a fad, but a life-changer. It can help you save money, get healthier, reduce your carbon footprint, and, most importantly, save lives. Better yet, everyone who has ever done it – me included – says their only regret is not having done it sooner. It is, of course, going vegan.
In the same way that refusing to buy the fruits of child labour enacts change, each person who decides to stop funding cruel, environmentally destructive animal agriculture makes a vast and positive difference.
Most importantly, every year, the average vegan spares the lives of as many as 200 sensitive and intelligent animals, each of whom is someone with their own thoughts and personality. You’re not just sparing them from the plate, but also the immense suffering that precedes it – languishing on a filthy, crowded factory farm, being trucked in terror to slaughter, and having their throats slit while hanging upside down, frightened and helpless.
Vegans are better for the planet, too, according to Oxford University research, which found that animal-free diets generate 75 per cent less heat-trapping gas, 75 per cent less water pollution, and use 75 per cent less land than diets containing 100 grams of meat daily.
You can also look forward to better health. Research shows that vegans have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease and cancer, and experience improved digestion and easier weight loss. We also report clearer skin and better sleep.
Despite being immensely powerful, withdrawing your support of animal abuse is incredibly easy. Once you look at animals differently, it becomes easy to pass up their dead bodies, and difficult to imagine you ever fell for meat industry propaganda that brainwashed you to believe it’s OK to kill others for a sandwich. After seeing meat for what it really is: violence, it’s no harder to ‘live without bacon’ than it is to refrain from trying to eat the dogs you meet on a walk.
Besides, nowadays, you can make or buy an animal-free upgrade of almost every food you currently enjoy. As a foodie, I can attest that Yorkshire is bursting with delicious vegan options.
There’s The Orchid in York, Trupig, Church, Tramshed, and Lovely Rita’s Bakehouse in Sheffield, as well as Döner Summer or Fat Annie’s in Leeds. You can munch through the menus of Blondes, Pom Kitchen and The Magic Sunflower, or stock up at Out of This World deli in Leeds and All Carrot No Stick grocery in Sheffield. Oh, and don’t miss Beck Hall, an all-vegan hotel in Malham. Add to this the plethora of vegan options that appear on the menus of non-vegan establishments, due to popular demand, and we’re spoiled for choice.
Some resolutions (looking at you, ‘quit coffee’) are a drag, but going vegan is all cruelty-free cream. It’s the only way to end animal suffering on a global scale, our best hope to subvert climate catastrophe, and a boon for our health. This New Year’s, turn over a new leaf, literally, and go vegan. I promise you’ll only regret waiting this long.
Tania Isabel is senior HR manager for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA).