World Vegan Day – how plant-based eating benefits human health, animals, and the environment.

I Changed What Was on My Plate. It Changed How I See the World.

On World Vegan Day, a personal reflection on health, compassion, and the connections I once couldn’t see.

I used to eat everything under the sun.

I enjoyed my food. I ate what was familiar, what tasted good, and what everyone around me was eating.

I wasn’t thinking about the animal behind the meal. Or the land, water, and resources needed to bring it to my plate.

It wasn’t that I didn’t care. I simply didn’t know.

Today, as we celebrate World Vegan Day on November 1, I find myself reflecting on how much that has changed.

Becoming vegan is one of the best decisions I feel I have made. The benefits have reached far beyond my own health. This journey has changed how I practise medicine, how I think about other living beings, and how I understand my responsibility to the Earth.

It began with food. It grew into awareness.

First, I began to see food differently

As a physician, I had spent years learning about disease and how to treat it. Yet there was so much I still had to learn about the food we eat every day.

When I began exploring whole-food, plant-based eating, I started seeing familiar ingredients differently.

Beans, lentils, vegetables, fruits, whole grains, nuts, and seeds became more than side dishes. They became the foundation of meals—and an important part of the conversations I was having about health.

Research supports the potential benefits. In a small randomized trial involving 22 pairs of identical twins, participants eating a healthy vegan diet had greater improvements in LDL cholesterol, fasting insulin, and body weight over eight weeks than those eating a healthy omnivorous diet. It was a short study, but it showed how meaningful a change in eating habits can be.

For me, that knowledge became especially powerful when I saw changes in the people we serve.

Then, I saw what it could mean for our patients

Through our work at Gift of Health, I have seen people improve their blood sugars, blood pressure, and cholesterol as they changed their food and other daily habits. Some have been able to reduce medications with medical supervision.

But the numbers tell only part of the story.

There is the relief of seeing progress after feeling stuck. The confidence that comes from learning to prepare a nourishing meal. The hope that returns when someone realizes their daily choices can make a difference.

Watching people regain that sense of possibility has changed me as a physician.

Food is an important part of care. So are movement, sleep, emotional well-being, appropriate treatment, and support. Results vary, and medication changes require medical guidance. Yet helping people use food as one of their tools has become deeply meaningful to me.

My awareness grew beyond human health

As I continued eating plant-based, I began to think more about the lives behind the foods I once ate without question.

I started seeing animals as beings with their own experiences, needs, and desire to live.

That awareness was uncomfortable at times. It asked me to look closely at habits I had never thought to question.

But it also gave me a choice.

I could bring the compassion I valued into something as ordinary as breakfast, lunch, and dinner.

For me, compassionate eating means making choices that seek to reduce animal suffering wherever reasonably possible. Veganism has also encouraged me to look beyond food and consider how other everyday purchases affect animals.

I don’t look back at my former self with anger. I remember how much I didn’t know. That helps me meet others with patience, because I was once in that same place.

I also began to understand the environmental footprint of my meals

We often think about caring for the planet through recycling, saving electricity, or using less plastic.

I had given far less thought to what was on my plate.

Learning about animal agriculture opened my eyes to another part of the picture: the resources used to raise animals and grow their feed, the emissions associated with production, and the pressure food systems place on habitats and waterways.

What does the difference actually look like?

When I started learning about the environmental impact of food, the numbers stopped me in my tracks.

I had been thinking about what a meal meant for my body. I hadn’t thought about how much land, water, and food it took to produce it.

Here are some of the facts that helped me see the bigger picture.

1. Most of our farmland supports animal foods

A major study published in Science found that animal foods—including meat, dairy, eggs, and farmed seafood—used approximately 83% of the world’s farmland while supplying just 18% of our calories and 37% of our protein. That land includes grazing areas and land used to grow animal feed.

The researchers estimated that a global shift away from animal foods could reduce agricultural land use by more than 75%, while still feeding the world. This is a modelled global scenario, but it shows the scale of the opportunity.

For me, that raises a hopeful question: How much more room could we leave for forests, wildlife, and recovering ecosystems if we needed less land to feed ourselves?

2. There is water behind every meal

A global water-footprint assessment estimated these average footprints:

Food	Approximate water footprint per kilogram
Beef	15,400 litres
Pork	6,000 litres
Chicken	4,300 litres
Dry pulses, such as beans and lentils	4,000 litres
Cereals	1,600 litres
Vegetables	300 litres

These figures include rainwater used by crops and pasture, surface water and groundwater, and an estimated volume associated with diluting pollution. They are total water footprints, rather than amounts of drinking water taken from a tap. Actual footprints vary by location and production method.

Foods also differ in their nutritional value, so comparing equal weights tells only part of the story. When researchers compared equal amounts of protein, beef’s water footprint was approximately six times that of pulses.

That gave me a new appreciation for a simple bowl of lentils.

3. Our dietary choices can make a substantial difference to emissions

A 2023 study examined the diets of more than 55,000 people in the UK and linked them with food-production data.

Compared with people eating at least 100 grams of meat daily, vegan diets had these estimated environmental footprints:

Environmental measure	Vegan diets compared with high-meat diets
Food-related greenhouse gas emissions	About 75% lower
Land use	About 75% lower
Water use	About 54% lower
Water pollution potential	About 73% lower
Potential biodiversity impact	About 66% lower

These are study averages for diets standardized to the same calorie intake. They describe the environmental footprint of food, rather than a person’s entire lifestyle.

What we eat is a daily opportunity to reduce our environmental footprint.

4. Feeding plants to animals involves a conversion loss

Animals use the food they eat to stay alive, move, maintain body temperature, and grow. Only some of the energy and protein in their feed becomes food for people.

A study of the US livestock system estimated that beef production converted approximately 3% of feed protein into protein consumed by humans. Put simply, about 100 grams of protein in cattle feed yielded 3 grams of beef protein for people under that study’s accounting.

This does not mean all that feed could have been eaten by people: cattle also consume grass, crop residues, and other materials we cannot digest. Conversion efficiency also varies by animal and farming system.

But it helps explain why producing animal protein can require so much land and other resources—and why eating suitable plant foods directly can be more efficient.

Learning these facts changed the way I looked at my plate.

A bean curry became more than a nourishing meal. It became one small way to use fewer resources and bring my concern for the planet into everyday life.

I could care for my health, act on my compassion for animals, and reduce the environmental footprint of my food through the same daily choice. That continues to feel deeply meaningful to me.

A large UK study linked the diets of more than 55,000 people with environmental data. It estimated that vegan diets produced about one-quarter of the food-related greenhouse gas emissions and land use of diets containing at least 100 grams of meat a day. Vegan diets also had lower estimated water use, water pollution, and biodiversity impacts. The size of the benefit varies with the foods and production methods involved, but the overall pattern was clear.

That helped me understand something I had been missing.

My meals connect me to places, resources, and living beings I may never see.

Eating plant-based gives me a practical way to act on that awareness every day.

What have I gained by becoming vegan?

When people hear “vegan,” they often think first about the foods they would give up.

When I reflect on my journey, I think about what I have gained:

• A way to support health: building meals around nourishing plant foods and sharing those skills with others.
• Greater compassion: thinking more carefully about the animals affected by my choices.
• Environmental awareness: understanding that food has a footprint beyond the kitchen.
• A closer connection between my values and actions: making everyday choices that reflect what matters to me.
• More curiosity in the kitchen: discovering how much we can create with beans, lentils, grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, and seeds.
• A renewed sense of purpose: helping people discover changes they can make for themselves and their families.

Some of these benefits can be measured. Others are deeply personal.

For me, the feeling of living more closely with my values has been one of the greatest gifts.

A healthy vegan diet needs care and planning

As a physician, I want to be clear about this: a vegan label alone does not tell us whether a food is nourishing.

The approach we teach at Gift of Health centres on whole plant foods, variety, and practical cooking skills.

A balanced vegan diet also needs attention to nutrients, including a reliable source of vitamin B12, vitamin D, omega-3 fats, protein, calcium, iron, and iodine. Individual needs vary, especially during pregnancy, childhood, and when managing health conditions.

Learning those skills is part of caring for ourselves well.

You can begin with your next meal

If you are curious about eating plant-based, you don’t have to know everything before you begin.

Try a lentil soup. Make a bean chilli. Explore a tofu dish. Choose a plant-based version of a meal your family already loves.

Ask questions. Learn a few recipes. Give yourself time to discover what works in your kitchen.

You can explore our Gift of Health recipes for ideas and inspiration.

I share my story because I remember what it was like to eat without seeing these connections. I know how much learning can change us.

On this World Vegan Day, I feel grateful that I was willing to learn.

I changed what was on my plate—and, meal by meal, it changed how I see the world.

With love,
Dr. Shobha Rayapudi
Co-founder, Gift of Health