Time spent at home during lockdown has brought attention to bad eating habits that were ignored in the pre-pandemic era. For many young Brits, the solution is to adopt a vegan lifestyle
A recent consumer research study from Mintel revealed that during the pandemic, vegan diets became more appealing to over 12% of British consumers. Young millennials between the age of 21 and 30 were significantly more attracted to eating vegan, with more than a quarter of them giving up dairy products and meat.
Switching to a plant-based diet is no simple task, and in the middle of a pandemic making such a significant change is quite bold. The question is: why now?
‘More and more people are realising that we can eat in a very healthy manner by just going back to basics, utilising produce at their more natural state,' says Nicole Leida, a nutritional therapist and yoga teacher from London.
She argues that the rise of veganism among young Brits has to do with their awareness of the impact of food and the food industry on the environment, as a vegan diet doesn't incorporate any animal products - even honey.
‘Some people who follow a vegan diet from an ethical point of view, go as far as not using products that have resulted from animal testing or cruelty,’ she says.
The ‘magic’ benefits of a vegan diet
Rebeka Török, a 21-year-old theatre student from the London borough of Barnet, is one of the many young Brits whose eating habits were vegan even before the pandemic, and she kept to her principles throughout lockdown.
‘The fully vegan diet can be the healthiest at this time, but we also have to take supplements regardless of our diet. Nowadays we buy most of our food from multinational grocery stores where the goods are treated with chemicals and don't contain as many vitamins and minerals as needed,’ she says.
For Brits, especially millennials, Covid-19 was a reminder that health can change at any time. There is a lot of speculation around healthy food, more than half of Brits (51%) believe that plant/botanical ingredients can have medicinal benefits, according to Mintel.
Rebeka, who’s now been a vegan for more than two years, says that a plant-based diet includes a variety of different ingredients which keep her healthy - even during a pandemic. Her usual diet contains lots of berries, nuts, leafy greens, avocado, coconut, oat and green lentils.
‘It has many medical benefits. It lowers the blood sugar, lowers your risk to heart disease, improves kidney function and protects against certain cancers,’ she says.
Products such as kelp, ginger or turmeric are some of the top herbal supplements she uses, which are claimed to help boost the immune system.
’Kelp could boost anyone's diet in a good way because it’s full of minerals and antioxidants. Who doesn't want that?’, Rebeka says.
Leida explains that variety is best, and that one individual would be incapable of consuming the necessary quantity of these ingredients on their own, for maximum effect. ‘There are all sorts of foods that have been claimed to be superfood or magic food,' she says. ‘In 2020 there has been more attention towards kelp or following a ketogenic diet, but those won’t be very helpful in your diet unless you have a variety of products.'
Home baking
The pandemic has also changed the nation's eating habits in other
ways. People are travelling less and spending more time cooking with ingredients they have at home.
‘Most people realised that they had more time to cook or even bake their own food at home. By doing so, they’ve reduced the waste of food and became more conscious of their impact on the environment,’ says Leida.
The lockdown has also motivated people to bake from home. More than half (55%) of the nation plans on cooking more from scratch post-COVID-19 than they did before, according to research from Mintel.
For Rebeka, that meant experimenting with brand new dishes - although not every attempt went as expected.
’I love baking at home and it didn't change during the pandemic,’ she says. ‘My suggestion to beginners is to follow the steps and experiment later. I didn't do it that way and I had to throw away so many misfit bread rolls.’
Leida argues that good nutrition depends on how much you know your own body. ‘I would suggest to try and almost tune in to your own body’s intelligence and listen to what it is saying when you eat certain things,’ she says.
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