It's World Vegan Month, which means it's time to celebrate.
There are so many good plant-based options out there, you can adapt your diet to one of a superhero, help animals and the earth, and please your taste buds all at the same time.
Why vegan?
Estimates have shown that if the dietary norm shifted away from meat towards a plant-based diet, climate change mitigation costs would drop by 70 percent. No estimates are exact, of course, considering how many variables play into calculating emissions of different industries on a global scale.
What isn't in question, though, is that a vegan diet has a significantly lighter carbon footprint than an animal-based diet. As another example, the dairy industry alone has been estimated to produce about four percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions.
There's also no question as to the cruelty that animals raised for food suffer.
Or the health benefits. Even a former president has learned that lesson.
Treat yourself
You can find treats all over the world, from vegan buffalo wings in Brooklyn that I still crave even from across the country, to vegetable "ham" soup in Shanghai. A national chain even offers one of the most hard-to-find vegan items, even in a vegan chef's own kitchen—the quiche at Le Pain Quotidien.
You don't have to miss out on the ice cream, or even decadent ice cream cakes, like Carvel's Cookiepuss, vegan-style. Or the cheese. There are tasty alternatives for just about any food you can dream up, use World Vegan Month to give them a try.
