As the hangovers kick in and promises are made at the end of the festive season, more and more people are committing to making a lifestyle change that may require stronger willpower than, say, going to the gym more than once in the first month of the year. Record numbers have signed up to “Veganuary” and will try living on a plant-based diet, at least for a few weeks. With vegan options becoming cheaper, and more widespread and convenient, organisers of the initiative believe 2019 will be the year of the vegan.

In 2016, a petition launched by the Portugal Vegetarian Society (Associação Vegetariana Portuguesa) gathered over 15,000 signatures, in support of making it mandatory for all public institutions and eateries to serve at least one, if not multiple vegan and vegetarian options. Last year, to the delight of many meat-free eaters, this law was finally legalized and implemented by the Portuguese parliament.

Mexican-inspired fast-food chain Taco Bell will test its first-ever dedicated vegetarian menu in stores later this year. Taco Bell is the only quick service restaurant to certified by the American Vegetarian Association. According to the brand, its current menu allows more than 8 million vegetarian combinations, enough to customize a new meal every day for 20,000 years.

The UK is officially the world leader for vegan food launches, according to data from market expert Mintel. When it comes to plant-based eating, Germany has long been ahead of the game with recent reports confirming that 10 per cent of the population describe themselves as vegan or vegetarian, and an impressive one in 10 new products feature a vegan label.

This week, I was sent an enthusiastic email from someone encouraging me, as a vegan, to give the 'Entovegan lifestyle' a go. It was, they promised me, the most sustainable option out there and one that all eco-conscious vegans should consider switching to. Intrigued, I took a look to see if there was some blindly obvious adaptation to my lifestyle I could and should make.‍

In a recent tell-all article with Urbanette, Michelle Pfeiffer revealed her secret to looking young: veganism. Yes, she credited her youthful glow to her plant-based diet! She said the light bulb went on when she watched CNN’s The Last Heart Attack. With a family history of cancer, she decided a vegan diet was the healthiest option.

We know the world is eating too much meat, and we know that we as individuals have to do something about it. So I was one of the record 250,000 people who signed up to Veganuary this year. I haven’t actually eaten meat for 30 years, although I occasionally ate fish and felt bad about it. Two years ago, I visited a modern British dairy farm where the cows were kept in very clean conditions, indoors, all year round.

What if the world’s top leaders, entertainers, doctors, and scientists asked you to go vegan? That’s the hope for a new campaign from the team that brought you Veganuary. Celebrity supporters include Paul McCartney, actor Woody Harrelson, musician Moby, Joaquin Phoenix, Evanna Lynch, and PCRM founder Dr. Neal Barnard.

By now, you've likely heard the argument to eat less meat for the health of the planet. Heck, even Beyoncé has been pushing this message, dangling the prospect of free concert tickets for life before fans to raise interest in plant-based eating for the environment. But if you're an omnivore starving while staring at a menu, it can be hard for the future of planet Earth to compete with the appeal of a big, juicy burger.

With veganism on the rise and entire supermarket aisles now dedicated to veggie and vegan food ranges, it’s a good time to consider what motivates people to go vegan. There are many reasons why people decide to cut animal products from their diet, but the negative health effects of excessive meat and dairy consumption and the enormous environmental impacts of industrial agriculture are popular ones. However, the suffering of billions of animals each year in factory farming, referred to in a 2015 Guardian article as one of the “worst crimes in history”, is the most powerful motivation for many, including myself.

Sales of the “bleeding” Beyond Burger are soaring at Finnish vegan burger shop Bun2Bun. The chain became Finland’s first vegan burger shop in December, selling plant-based patties from Beyond Meat with dairy-free cheese and vegan sides.

It took Impossible Foods years–and deep expertise in biotech–to develop a plant-based burger that looked and tasted like beef. Other companies, like Just, also have multimillion-dollar labs. But a new startup now wants to make it easier for the other companies to enter the world of plant-based or cell-grown meat, dairy, and eggs.

In 2017, the U.K. supermarket Sainsbury’s tried an experiment. The retailer had recently rolled out a vegetarian version of the classic English meal, sausage and mash, labeled “meat-free sausages and mash,” but it wasn’t exactly flying off the shelves. Suspecting the uninspired name might have to do with the lackluster sales, Sainsbury’s tried out a few different labels: “field-grown sausages and mash,” Cumberland-spiced veggie sausages and mash,” and “better sausages and mash.” Every alternative name sold better, but “Cumberland-spiced” brought sales up 76% in two months.

Nowadays, the majority of people encompassing the world are willing to be a vegetarian or vegan. The number of vegetarians and vegans increased rapidly within a few years. Additionally, studies have shown that it will continue to rise. On the other hand, the remaining population chooses non-veg food for taste and nutrition. There are plenty of reasons why you should try a vegetarianHawaii diet even though you don't want to become a vegan or vegetarian.

One common complaint I hear from non-vegans is, “Oh, I just don’t like vegan food.” It always makes me feel so sad for this person whose life is apparently free of chips and guac, juicy tangerines, and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

It’s been just over one year since filmmaker Kevin Smith suffered a near-fatal heart attack that would eventually transform his health for the better. The filmmaker wrote on Instagram that he spent the one-year anniversary “living it up” with longtime friends and “Jay and Silent Bob” co-stars Jason Mewes and Jason Lee, to work on the upcoming reboot.

Whether it’s scientists and food producers racing to get lab-grown meat on the shelves or big conglomerates like Unilever investing in plant-based animal product alternatives, the plant-based movement has been growing exponentially for the past couple of years. In light of our The Future of Meat event, I talked to Pablo Moleman, Co-Founder of The Netherlands branch of prominent international food-awareness organisation Proveg, about the present and future of the plant-based food movement.

The makers of plant-based burgers and breakfast sausage is launching a vegan cheese burger.

Nothing will make you give up on your vegan diet if you’re feeling sick all of the time. Sadly, many people are not thriving after going vegan, despite eating a healthier diet than before. In recent years there have been a few high profile vegans who have reverted back to animal products even after many…

A total of approximately 6.5 million Canadians (20 percent of the population) are actively reducing, or completely eliminating, their consumption of meat, according to a study conducted by Dalhousie University and the University of Guelph. The researchers were interested in discovering how Canadians were responding to the 2019 Canada Food Guide—which de-emphasizes the consumption of meat and dairy, instead recommending that Canadians focus on plant-based sources of protein.