A few dietary prognosticators are saying 2019 might be the year of the vegan.
Already, the animal product-free diet has some pretty famous fans.
People reports that in the introduction to a new book by their personal trainer, Jay-Z and Beyoncé embrace veganism.
“Having children has changed our lives more than anything else,” they wrote. “We used to think of health as a diet – some worked for us, some didn’t. Once we looked at health as the truth, instead of a diet, it became a mission for us to share that truth and lifestyle with as many people as possible.”
But vegans aren’t just following celebrity advice. The Atlantic reports “there’s no disputing the fact that a diet rich in plant-based, unprocessed food is a smart diet.”
[The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics]( says that a well-planned vegan (and vegetarian) diet is “healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits in the prevention and treatment of certain diseases.”
Veganism isn’t yet a national phenomenon.— only three percent of Americans identified as vegan in 2018, according to a recent Gallup poll — but businesses are betting big on the diet.
From The Economist:
McDonald’s has started selling McVegan burgers. Sales of vegan foods in America in the year to June 2018 rose ten times faster than food sales as a whole. Giant food firms are clambering onto the bandwagon, creating vegan lines of their own, buying startups, or both. Tyson Foods, a meat behemoth, has a 5% stake in Beyond Meat, which sells meat-free patties to TGI Friday’s, a restaurant chain. Even Big Meat is going vegan, it seems.
So could this be the year for an entirely plant-based diet?
We’re deconstructing the economic, environmental, and ethical aspects of being vegan.
A show on veganism is one of our most-requested programs, so we’re excited to get to do it. If you’d like to pitch us a show, you can do so here.
GUESTS
Dr. Walter Willett, Professor of epidemiology and nutrition, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health; professor of medicine, Harvard Medical School.
Afya Ibomu, Nutritionist; author, “The Vegan Remix” and “The Vegan Soulfood Guide to the Galaxy”; @afyaibomu
Stephanie Tarnowsky, Sous chef, The Fancy Radish
For more, visit https://the1a.org.
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