What is Veganuary and Should You Try it?
- Patrick Elliott, BSc, MPH
- Jan 12, 2023
- 6 min read
Updated: 2 hours ago
Every January since 2014, the non-profit organisation Veganuary encourages people to try a vegan diet for the month of January and beyond. Read on to learn more about this initiative and the potential benefits of eating more plant-based.
Introduction
In 2023, Veganuary had ~707,000 participants sign up and take part. In 2024, Veganuary reported that ~1.8 million people worldwide were directly supported to go vegan by their initiative, while last year (2025), almost 26 million people participated in Veganuary. If you are curious about this initiative, or are interested in ways to improve your health or diet-related ethical and environmental impacts, this is the article for you!
What is Veganuary?
Veganuary is a non-profit organisation that encourages people to try a vegan diet through January and beyond. They have four main aims:
Increase participation in Veganuary, by encouraging vegan diets.
Increase corporate outreach, by working with brands, restaurants, and supermarkets, helping them to create, launch, and promote new vegan items.
Raise awareness of animal suffering on farms and at slaughter, and all the reasons to eat a vegan diet.
Grow the global movement to take collective action to change the world for the better.
Veganuary is clearly a successful initiative, but can eating a vegan diet offer any benefits for human health and environmental sustainability?
Image source: Abigail Travers (ethicalsuperstore.com).
Health Effects of Vegan Diets
In a meta-analysis of 11 randomised controlled trials (1), vegan diets outperformed omnivorous diets for a range of cardiometabolic risk factors, significantly lowering:
Body weight and body mass index (BMI).
Haemoglobin A1c (a measure of blood sugar control).
Low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol (a measure of cardiovascular disease risk).
Vegetarian and vegan diets also tend to lower other cardiovascular risk factors, such as the heart disease-causing agent known as apolipoprotein B, and the measure of general systemic inflammation known as C-reactive protein (2).
Figure 1. Graphical Abstract summarising the effects of vegan and vegetarian (plant-based) diets on biomarkers of cardiovascular disease (2).
What's more, large studies on plant-based eaters have shown benefits with regard to chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancer:
A recent meta-analysis of 13 large studies including nearly a million individuals—the largest of its kind—reported a significant 15% and 21% lower risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease for vegetarians compared to non-vegetarians, respectively, whereas vegans experienced an 18% lower risk of coronary heart disease (3).
In the same study, vegetarians showed evidence for reduced stroke risk compared to non-vegetarians, including significantly reduced risk in both Asian studies included (3).
Vegetarians have also shown significantly reduced risk for high blood pressure, diabetes, overweight, metabolic syndrome, certain cancers, and death from any cause in other large studies (4, 5), with broadly similar results reported for vegans (4).
Vegan Diets and Environmental Sustainability
Plant-based diets also offer considerable environmental benefits:
A 2018 study that included data from ~38,700 commercial farms across 119 countries reported that animal agriculture (including aquaculture) uses ~83% of the world’s farmland and contributes ~56–58% of total food-related greenhouse gas emissions, while only providing 18% of global calories (6).
The same paper found that if all consumers moved to a plant-based diet, land use could be reduced by 76% and food-related greenhouse gas emissions by 49% (6).
This is largely because livestock emit a lot of methane (a potent greenhouse gas) when digesting food (7), but also because raising, housing, and feeding livestock uses up so much land. For instance, 80% of the world’s soy is grown to feed animals.
Given all of the above, it makes sense that vegan diets are associated with the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions compared to other diets (8).
Figure 2. Global greenhouse gas-emission savings associated with different diet types (Source: The Conversation).
Are there Downsides to a Vegan Diet?
As with any diet, the vegan diet is not perfect. Without adequate planning, excluding animal-source foods from your diet can increase the risk of deficiencies in nutrients such as vitamin B12, calcium, iodine, and zinc (9,10). Regular consumption of fortified foods such as breakfast cereals and plant-based milks can be an easy way to help meet nutrient requirements on a vegan diet. In addition, supplementing with key nutrients or taking a daily multivitamin/mineral supplement can help to ensure you meet all nutrient requirements.
Top tip: make sure to check the label of fortified foods to see what nutrients have been added. For example, certain plant-based milk brands fortify their product with iodine whereas others don't.
Summary
Switching to a more plant-based dietary pattern—whether that’s vegan, vegetarian, or more in line with a flexitarian or Mediterranean-style diet—is beneficial for a number of important health outcomes. In addition, plant-rich diets offer substantial environmental benefits. If you're interested in taking the Veganuary plunge (or transitioning to a more plant-rich diet), head to the Veganuary website where you will find recipes, eating guides, and more.
Thanks for reading!
Patrick Elliott, BSc, MPH
Health and Nutrition Science Communication Officer at Training121
Instagram: @just.health.info
Health Disclaimer: this article is for informational and educational purposes only, and is not a substitute for professional advice. For health advice, speak to a physician or other qualified health-care professional, and for nutrition advice, speak to a qualified nutrition professional (e.g., registered dietitian). The use of information on this site is solely at your own risk.
References
(1) Termannsen AD, Clemmensen KKB, Thomsen JM, Nørgaard O, Díaz LJ, Torekov SS, Quist JS, Faerch K. Effects of vegan diets on cardiometabolic health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Obes Rev. 2022 Sep;23(9):e13462. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9540559/pdf/OBR-23-e13462.pdf
(2) Elliott PS, Kharaty SS, Phillips CM. Plant-Based Diets and Lipid, Lipoprotein, and Inflammatory Biomarkers of Cardiovascular Disease: A Review of Observational and Interventional Studies. Nutrients. 2022;14(24):5371. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/24/5371
(3) Dybvik JS, Svendsen M, Aune D. Vegetarian and vegan diets and the risk of cardiovascular disease, ischemic heart disease and stroke: a systematic review and meta-analysis of prospective cohort studies. Eur J Nutr. 2022;62:51–69. Available at: https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s00394-022-02942-8
(4) Le LT, Sabaté J. Beyond meatless, the health effects of vegan diets: findings from the Adventist cohorts. Nutrients. 2014;6(6):2131–47. Available at: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4073139/pdf/nutrients-06-02131.pdf
(5) Appleby PN, Thorogood M, Mann JI, Key TJ. The Oxford Vegetarian Study: an overview. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999;70(3 Suppl):525S–531S. Available at: https://academic.oup.com/ajcn/article/70/3/525s/4714981
(6) Poore J, Nemecek T. Reducing food's environmental impacts through producers and consumers [published correction appears in Science. 2019 Feb 22;363(6429):]. Science. 2018;360(6392):987–92. Available at: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/29853680/
(7) Nabuurs G-J, Mrabet R, Abu Hatab A, Bustamante M, Clark H, et al. Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Uses (AFOLU). In IPCC, 2022: Climate Change 2022: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Cambridge, UK and New York, NY, USA: Cambridge University Press, 2022. Available at: https://www.ipcc.ch/report/ar6/wg3/downloads/report/IPCC_AR6_WGIII_Chapter07.pdf
(8) Chai BC, van der Voort JR, Grofelnik K, Eliasdottir HG, Klöss I, Perez-Cueto FJA. Which Diet Has the Least Environmental Impact on Our Planet? A Systematic Review of Vegan, Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diets. Sustainability. 2019; 11(15):4110. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/11/15/4110
(9) Bakaloudi DR, Halloran A, Rippin HL, Oikonomidou AC, Dardavesis TI, Williams J, Wickramasinghe K, Breda J, Chourdakis M. Intake and adequacy of the vegan diet. A systematic review of the evidence. Clin Nutr. 2021;40(5):3503–3521. Available at: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0261561420306567
(10) Neufingerl N, Eilander A. Nutrient Intake and Status in Adults Consuming Plant-Based Diets Compared to Meat-Eaters: A Systematic Review. Nutrients. 2021;14(1):29. Available at: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/14/1/29
Technical Terms
Meta-analysis: This is a type of study that combines the results of a number of other studies that look at the same thing, and produces a summative estimate of the effect or association of what’s being studied. For example, a meta-analysis of five studies looking at smoking and lung cancer would combine the results from all five studies into one overall result, with the intention of providing a better estimate of the true effect of smoking on lung cancer.
Randomised controlled trials: Also known as RCTs, these are a type of intervention study where a group of recruited individuals are randomly assigned to groups within a study. One rationale for randomisation is to reduce bias; that is, to evenly distribute among groups any factors that may influence (or bias) the result of interest. For example, if we have a group of 100 people who will either be given a multivitamin or placebo and followed for 10 years to see how many in each group dies, we would randomise so that each group is on average similar for factors like age, physical activity status, smoking status, and so on. If we didn't randomise, there's a greater chance that one group may end up being sufficiently different from the other group such that the results of the study may be biased, e.g., one group could have a lot more smokers or sedentary individuals, which would likely influence the outcome of interest (i.e., death).
Statistical significance: This is a term to describe the likelihood of whether a finding in a study is a 'real' finding, or if it is the result of chance. Statistical significance is denoted by a p-value, which is usually set at a significance (alpha) level of 0.05. This means that if a result is significant at this level (p<0.05), we can say that the probability of getting a value as or more extreme than the observed value (under the assumption that the null hypothesis is true) is less than 5%.
