Welcome back to Book Break!
So, you're thinking of doing Veganuary.
I know there are loads of reasons why people are sometimes too scared to do Veganuary
or think they won't be able to make it
so I'm here to hopefully change your mind about that
and give you some book recommendations to help you along your way.
So the number one reason people are usually scared of doing Veganuary
is how extreme it feels.
Especially if you usually eat meat,
suddenly going vegan is a really big deal,
and that's 31 whole days with no meat,
no cheese,
no eggs,
sounds impossible.
Well firstly, it's not impossible, and we'll get to that in a minute,
but secondly,
if you really do think it sounds too hard for you,
then OK, go gently on yourself.
It doesn't have to be all or nothing when you go vegan.
So maybe you could use Veganuary to just increase the number of plant based meals
that you eat
and you're still making a massive difference.
So for that reason,
the number one book that I'm recommending is Vegan(ish) by Jack Monroe.
So Jack Monroe describes herself as mostly vegan.
She does eat pretty much entirely a plant-based diet,
but as she does so much work with food banks,
and working with really low-income families
who just don't have the flexibility or resources to be 100% vegan,
she doesn't have to be strict about it.
And in this book, she's got some really amazing stats
about the difference that you make going vegan even just for one day.
So she points out in here that for every day you go vegan,
you save, on average,
That's if you only did one day of veganuary.
So for however many meals you do decide to go vegan,
Jack Monroe's got 100 really affordable and delicious
totally plant-based recipes in here.
She may only be vegan-ish
but all of the recipes in here are 100% vegan.
So I've already got my eye on these pear and ginger pancakes for breakfast,
a chickpea Caesar salad for lunch,
and look at this crispy chow mein for dinner!
And of course, there's lots of delicious looking dessert recipes in here as well.
I am definitely going to be making these orange and almond brownies.
And if you are still a bit unconvinced that going only part-time vegan can really make
that much of a difference,
the next book that I recommend is The Reducetarian Solution
which is all about the effects of cutting down your meat consumption by just 10%.
So that one is a collection of essays
from various influential thinkers
giving their advice for how to cut down on meat and animal products
as well as their research on what an amazing difference that can make.
And also, it's got veggie and vegan recipes in the book as well.
Now the second thing that people are nervous of
when it comes to doing veganuary
is that the food is going to be boring
and that it's going to be a month of just depriving themselves of all their favourite
foods
and eating nothing but carrots.
But that's just so not true, especially these days.
In fact, everything on this table is vegan.
The massive trend at the moment for vegan food
means you'll probably find vegan options at whatever restaurant you go to
and if you're cooking at home, the options are endless.
So I've already mentioned Vegan(ish)
and there's an incredible range of vegan recipes in there.
But now I've got two more cookbooks to show you.
Firstly, The 28 Day Vegan Plan.
This one's really useful for planning out your Veganuary.
It's got week by week recipes and shopping lists
and tips for meal prepping
and the recipes in here are amazing,
you've got everything from mac and cheese to tacos to ice cream,
you can make anything vegan, it turns out.
And then I thought I'd put a veggie cookbook in here
as we are talking about taking Veganuary at your own pace,
but there's loads of totally vegan recipes in here as well.
And all of these recipes take around 15 minutes,
which just shows that eating vegan doesn't have to be that hard.
OK, your third hurdle.
Maybe you're just a bit unconvinced in the first place.
You might have heard a lot about Veganuary,
but you're still not quite sure why we actually should go vegan.
So for that, I'm going to recommend two books
that have had a huge impact on my life
and inspired me to make decisions about my own diet.
So the first is Animal Liberation by Peter Singer.
So this is kind of the founding philosophical book about animal rights from the 70s.
And it introduces the concept of speciesism,
which is basically questioning why we consider
non-human lives to be less valuable than human lives.
So it is quite radical, but it's really really interesting,
and it throws up all these quite uncomfortable questions,
which will make you just reconsider the way you think about animals.
And then for a less radical approach,
this is actually my favourite book about veganism,
Eating Animals by Jonathan Safran Foer.
So this is Jonathan Safran Foer going on his own journey
to make decisions about the food that he wants to eat
and he wrote this book after he had his son
so it's making decisions about the food that he wants to feed to his son.
So it's absolutely not any kind of strict moral lecture on veganism,
it's a really balanced approach,
he speaks to loads of different people and considers lots of different viewpoints
in discovering more about the food industry,
and basically he does just find that in terms of animal rights,
environmental reasons, economical reasons, health reasons, everything,
there are so many reasons why it's beneficial to go vegan.
And finally, the last thing people might need some help with in Veganuary,
maybe the vegan diet doesn't scare you at all,
but what about the other aspects of living a vegan life that don't get talked about as
much?
So for that I recommend the book Vegan Life by Jo Peters,
which has got loads of advice for how to introduce veganism into all areas of your life,
and it makes it really easy to know what to look for
in the clothes you wear
the household products you use
the make up that you wear,
it shows you what to look for when you're shopping for those things
and also some tips on how to DIY your own products.
So hopefully those books will make you feel a little bit more prepared
and good luck for trying out veganuary!
And of course, do give this video a thumbs up if you found it helpful,
and leave a comment below letting us know if you are going to be doing Veganuary
and any advice you have
so we can all swap tips in the comments for all of us who are going to try it out.
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Coming up next week we've got a video all about cosy crime books,
which is just perfect for this time of year.
And in the meantime, you can always go and follow us over on Instagram @bookbreakuk.
See you next time.