10 Fascinating Vegan Facts for the Curious Eater!

Veganism is the way to an ethical lifestyle and a healthy body, but do you know your vegan facts from your vegan fiction? 

While a plant-based diet is certainly the way forward, how much of the news and propaganda we hear about meat eating, climate change, and animal rights is actually true? All too often, the facts about being vegan are lost in the back and forth, but we want to get things right when it comes to eating vegan. 

We’re here to bust vegan and vegetarianism myths and make sure that you have the facts to make the most informed decision you can. Here are our top vegan facts, for the curious eater! 

What is veganism, exactly? 

But before we get to those facts, let’s just take a moment to make sure that we’re all on the same page. What is veganism? 

Veganism is often described as a plant-based diet. But it’s much more than this. Vegans don’t eat any animal products. They don’t use animal products, and in many cases, won’t entertain the idea of food production processes that involve animal enzymes. 

Veganism is a lifestyle, as well as a diet, and vegans often support animal rights or care about the environmental benefits of being vegan. Increasingly, vegans also take on a vegan diet for health benefits too. There are so many different reasons to go vegan!

Now we can get to the vegan facts and statistics! Here are our top vegan fun facts, alongside the more serious facts about vegans! 

10 curious vegan facts

Veganism isn’t new

Sometimes it seems that veganism might just be one of those new, passing fads, but the reality is that this is quite the opposite. While veganism has become more popular in recent years, veganism isn’t actually new.

But it’s not exactly ancient, either. 

While vegetarianism goes back to at least the days of the ancient Greeks, veganism in its stricter, modern form was first put forward in 1944. A man named Donald Watson founded the first Vegan society, coining the term ‘vegan’ after splitting from the local vegetarian society. 

Vegans don’t eat ANY animal products

A plant-based diet doesn’t include any meat, fish, or dairy, but did you know that there are many other less known animal products that are excluded?

A strict vegan diet doesn’t include any honey, for instance, because honey has to be produced by bees. Strict vegans apply the same moral code to bees, as they do to milking cows.

Vegans also can’t eat a lot of candy because many of the most popular mass-produced products include gelatin, a compound derived from animals. 

Many everyday items, such as mayonnaise, Worcestershire sauce, and even fresh pasta, can contain dairy or animal products, too, making these a no-go. 

Not all wine is vegan!

One of the most intriguing (and annoying!) facts about veganism is the fact that not all wine is technically vegan. 

This sort of depends on how strict you are, but if you’re serious about becoming vegan then you need to check the wine you’re drinking. 

It sounds disgusting, but wine is traditionally filtered using fish guts. Enzymes found in fish guts help to separate unwanted molecules that cause cloudiness from the liquid, leaving you with clear wine. Some types of beer also use this process too. 

Increasingly, though, wine producers use vegan-friendly products to filter their products. 

It’s actually rare for vegans to have a protein deficit

One of the biggest myths perpetuated by the meat industry is that the only source of protein for humans is meat!

It’s a good sales tactic, but the harsh reality is that this sort of thinking has actually skewed veganism facts in a negative way. As a result, a vegan diet is often seen to be lacking in protein, and many people refuse to make the switch out of fear they’ll have a protein deficit. 

It’s just not true. There are a wide variety of plant-based foods that provide more than enough protein for humans. There’s tofu, lentils, all sorts of beans and legumes, and much more.

Fake meat isn’t so expensive

Another untrue fact about eating vegan, is that it’s an expensive lifestyle. In the US, this just doesn’t hold up as an excuse anymore. Not only are meats an expensive product, but there are a wide range of ‘fake meat’ products that now compete in terms of taste and price!

If you’re worried about the money, you can even make your own ‘fake meats’ at home. With the help of a delicious marinade and a tofu press, for instance, you can turn a block of tofu into deep-fried ‘chicken’ or ‘beef’ slices!

You can save hundreds of animals by becoming vegan

Okay, so this fact sounds a little wild, but it’s totally true. For every person switching to an all vegan diet, 200 animals are saved every year. 

That’s just in the US, where a staggering 150 billion animals are killed every year to provide us with meat. Many of these animals are kept in squalid conditions, living only a semblance of life before they are slaughtered. 

If you care about animal rights, then this is one of the biggest reasons to go vegan. 

Going vegan is great for the environment!

Not everyone is swayed by the animal argument - and we aren’t here to judge people’s morals, lifestyle, and upbringing. Animals can also be reared sustainably, in some views, but that’s up to you to decide.

However, one of the most important facts about going vegan that you should care about is the fact that it has such a positive impact on the environment. Vegan environmental facts are, however, always linked to animals. 

Climate change is a pressing issue (and that’s an understatement), and the meat and dairy industry contributes towards an enormous percentage of carbon dioxide emissions. Meat and dairy farming also uses up valuable resources, like land and water, in vast quantities that just isn’t efficient in comparison to plant-based products. 

We love a few good vegan environmental statistics, but if you take away anything today, take on board the fact that you can reduce your carbon footprint by 73 per cent by adopting a vegan diet!

Vegans are saving the oceans 

For environmentalists, then one of the most important facts about vegan diet adoption is the fact that you are also saving the ocean. 

Our oceans are a vital resource, but they have been overfished to the point where there’s a real danger that a vast majority of species are going to become extinct. 

If you love our marine ecosystems, then the best thing you can do for the ocean is stop eating fish!

Vegan health facts: lose weight! 

Increasingly, it’s vegan health facts that are taking the limelight. Alongside ethical and environmental reasons, people take on a plant-based diet for health benefits. 

But what are these vegan health facts, we hear you ask? 

Well, there’s proven to be a number of vegan diet facts, including the fact that you can lose weight. A vegan diet is low in saturated fats and often low in calories, too, compared to meat-heavy diets.

If you’re looking to shed a few pounds, then a vegan diet is the healthy way to do it. 

Vegan health facts: reduce your risk of heart disease

As well as losing weight, one of the most interesting facts about veganism is the effect that a vegan diet can have on your heart. 

Reducing the number of saturated fats and the amount of cholesterol you consume helps to lower your blood pressure and reduce the risk of heart disease (and other related conditions, such as type 2 diabetes).

For a healthy body and a healthy mind, there’s no denying that veganism is the way forward!

That’s it for our top 10 vegan facts!

That’s it for our top 10 facts about veganism, but there’s a lot more out there to learn. Veganism is not just a moral and ethical stance that aims to protect animals; it’s much more than this. Veganism is about helping our environment, saving our oceans, and making better use of limited resources.

It’s also about living a healthy lifestyle, watching what we eat, and staying fit. Why not bookmark our top 10 vegan facts, so you can help to dispel the myths?