Vegan Vs Plant-based

What’s the difference and why might you try it? 

January marks the beginning of a lot of new intentions and habits for many people across the globe. For some, this means Veganuary. In 2023, a whopping 706,965 people signed up to take part in Veganuary. That’s just the amount of people that pledged online, so we can confidently expect a higher figure in total, and hopefully higher still for 2024 when the figures are released. This time of year is a prime time for the marketing sector to fully commit to the trend and jump aboard the Veganuary train. Over the past 31 days I’ve seen countless blogs and posts on social media on how to live healthily as a vegan, new products filling the shelves, and recipes good enough to make me drool at the screen. So, let’s keep this train running full steam ahead into February.

I’ve been vegan for around 6/7 years now – I’m unsure on the exact time I moved from vegetarian to vegan. For full transparency, I’ve had some periods where I’ve dabbled back into vegetarianism, sometimes because of availability (living in rural Kenya and Slovakia can be slightly limited in vegan choices 🤣) and sometimes because I don’t want to miss out on an experience that I could never recreate back home. In the U.K. I’m strict, but definitely make mistakes here and there.

For this blog post I wanted to explore the concepts of ‘vegan’ and ‘plant-based’. These two phrases are often used interchangeably, and that’s absolutely fine in day-to-day life, but it’s good to understand the differences and adopt whichever terms you prefer. Before I go on, I believe that whatever someone would like to call themselves is what is most important. If you prefer a word that reflects your diet, great. If you choose a word that reflects your lifestyle, wonderful. If you prefer no labels at all, amazing. For those that would like to understand the differences, read on!

Plant-based
Being plant-based means that the majority of the time a person’s diet is simply based around plants! You might consume meat, fish, and dairy products from time to time and do not necessarily eliminate any specific food groups from your diet, but your main focus is on plants and whole foods such as vegetables, fruits, pulses, and legumes.

Vegan.
Being vegan generally extends a little bit further than your food choices and is often seen as a way of life. Foods consumed will not derive from animals, meaning that an animal is not required in any way shape or form to produce the food, but there are many other areas considered, too. For example, vegans wouldn’t typically wear leather, wool, silk etc and would avoid using cleaning and beauty products that contain animal products. It’s also really important to remember that products may not require animal-derived ingredients for production, but for various reasons (regulations being one of them) they may be tested on animals. These products would generally be avoided.

A person following a vegan lifestyle may even avoid ingredients that are not specifically animal-derived, but by using them they negatively impact animal’s lives and environment. An example of this is palm oil.

Food for thought: Veganism can be different for everyone. Some vegans may wear second hand leather to avoid waste and give clothing a second life. Some vegans will consume honey. Some vegans will consume palm oil (me). We could spend a really long time arguing that ‘that’s not vegan’ but firstly, most people that identify as vegan are simply doing the best they can and may only venture ‘outside of the lines’ in certain situations, and secondly, there are much bigger debates. Compassion and kindness always please! 

Did you know?

There are actually a lot of negative connotations with the word ‘vegan’. Research has suggested that some people may avoid purchasing products advertised as vegan but they would buy that same product if there was no such mention of veganism at all. Some consumers may even be more likely to buy a vegan product if it advertises different associated benefits such as ‘healthy’ and ‘sustainable’ rather than vegan. This does highlight the importance of language in advertising and marketing (and I’m definitely here for more sustainability) but it does make me question why? Why is there a negative association with veganism for some people? I don’t have the answers to that one yet…

Despite this, however, it does appear that meat consumption in the U.K. continues to decline, perhaps with the exception of poultry.

Have you ever considered reducing your meat intake?

There are many reasons that we might make that choice, although, as always, it’s not entirely black and white. You might choose to adopt a vegan diet for health reasons. This takes education, understanding, and planning, but it is definitely possible. Unfortunately, I’ve known more than a handful of vegans whose diet is very heavy on ultra-processed foods (more on that in another post) and low on wholefoods and this is not a healthy switch.

To stay on the right side of science and not be too bias of a vegan diet, I just want to point out that current evidence suggests that an omnivorous diet is not automatically less healthy than a vegan diet – it all depends on what foods make up your diet as a whole. The Mediterranean Diet has been researched extensively and is often referred to as one of the best diets you can follow due to health benefits such as increased cardiovascular health, and this way of eating certainly includes fish and dairy products and sometimes meat, but the key is that it is all in moderation. There are many components of the Med Diet that make it beneficial to our health.

Food for thought: Perhaps this is where you can adopt more of a plant-based frame of mind!

Another large reason people often choose to eliminate or reduce consumption of animal products is to support animal welfare. In fact, 40% of the people that took part in Veganuary in 2023 did so to support animal health and wellbeing. You can see below some of the other reasons.

Reasons people tried Veganuary in

2023

I know it sounds a bit cheesy…

Whenever I get into a conversation about veganism, being plant-based, or reducing animal-derived products, I would bet a fair bit of money that cheese will come up. It’s the holy grail of dairy products and, if I’m being mature, I 100% get it. Cheese is amazing. I’ve tried loads of cheese alternatives now and some of them are delicious in their own right, but let’s brie honest, none of them are even close to halloumi or a classic block of cheddar. And for me personally, I’m okay with that! But, if you’re someone who just cannot live without cheese…then don’t! It often doesn’t feel like it but small changes really can make a difference. If you’re someone that ‘could be vegan if it wasn’t for cheese’…I challenge you to do just that! Maybe adopt our friendly phrase ‘plant-based’ instead and make some changes, the changes that won’t make you feel like you’re compromising or missing out on little cheesy chunks of happiness. Brie the change you wish to see and you’ll feel gouda! (Okay I’m done with cheese the puns now).

I hope this has helped you navigate some of the terminology a little bit easier and understand why someone may make these choices, but if you have any questions please feel free to ask!

Happy eating!

Bells x