Environmental and Health benefits of a Vegan Lifestyle

Written by Georgia Bradley, Staff member at Cafe Paradiso

Hundreds of thousands of people around the globe have adopted a vegan diet and lifestyle with roughly 600,000 vegans in the UK.  At Café Paradiso we cater for a wide range of diets including those who have adopted a vegan one with both hot and cold options including cakes.  Not only is our vegan food delicious but it also comes with the health and environmental benefits.

When done correctly, a vegan diet offers increased potassium, fibre and vitamins A and E, essential for maintaining all round good health. A common argument against veganism is however that it does not contain plant protein but this does not take into account delicious plant based alternatives such as peanut butter and tofu. In fact our famous vegan chilli is protein packed with soya mince! For so many us who are trying to lose weight a vegan diet is fantastic way to still enjoy many of your favourite foods through the use of plant based meat and dairy alternatives. This is because typical, nutritious vegan food such as grains (such as our very popular wheatberry) can be just as filling and delicious with less calories than meat and dairy!

Here at Café Paradiso we are committed to the protection of the planet which is why all the cups, cutlery and bags are 100% recyclable. As a vegetarian café we also advocate the environmental benefits of a meat free diet exposing our wonderful customers to our wide variety of vegetarian lunches. This is because of some shocking statistics such as 51% of all greenhouse gas emissions is directly caused by animal agriculture and are expected to increase by 80% by 2050 so a great idea to help protect the planet is to cut down on meat consumption. Many of our meat eating customers often comment on how many of meals especially lasagne taste even better than the real thing! One study found that if the United States cut down their meat, dairy and eggs  consumption by a quarter annually they would save 82 million metric tonnes in CO2 emissions so why not come down to Café Paradiso and sample some great meat free options?