So, while pretty much half of social media was doing either DryJanuary or Veganuary, I opted for a more light-weight “challenge”: Going vegetarian for a month. Looks like there does not exist a widely accepted and social-media approved term but for that I think I’ll just call it “Vegetanuary” 🤪 I mostly managed to stick a vegan dishes, too, but I simply didn’t want to explicitly avoid milk. Over the years I’ve tried milk-replacement drinks again and again, but I simply don’t like the taste for my morning cereals or a hot chocolate. Thanks to some really good vegan mayonnaise replacements, I can actually avoid eggs in a lot of situations, so perhaps something to aim for next year!
The one big downside of going vegan/vegetarian today for me is that (if you also want something beyond vegetables from the food market, are not the best cook, or simply don’t have the time to pre-cook all the time) you have to deal with a lot of plastic packaging. If you’re lucky then there is only one layer of packaging now. A couple of years ago you had to deal with an outer layer and then each item was packaged again. Luckily, this got better and some companies are also trying to use compostable/bio-degradable materials but I think we still have a long way to go here.
There was also a lot of trial an error involved with new products but I have to give one shoutout to the German sausage company Rügenwalder, which in my opinion produces excellent vegan spreads that taste remarkably close to their meat-based counterparts! I should probably avoid highly processed food like these but I’ll make an exception for their products anytime 🤪 But again: Highly processed food is probably not something you should eat too much of…
On the plus-side, eating less meat over the last couple of years has improved my well-being by a lot! It takes a lot to get me feel completely stuffed after a meal (or even two!). It’s, obviously, anecdotal but I like that approach, eating meat only when I have to chance to eat it at a very high quality level!
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