According to plant-based student society, The Green Spoon, the recent ‘MyVeganuari’ campaign in Malaysia attracted a total of 560 participants who pledged to commit to a 100% plant-based diet for three, five or seven days a week throughout the month of January.

FMT spoke to a few participants to find out how they fared.

Nur Fatini first started reducing her meat consumption in September last year.

“By December, I stopped eating meat and started cutting down on my dairy intake,” said the 23-year-old student based in Bath, UK.

In January 2022, Fatini pledged to go completely vegan and she hasn’t looked back since.

“In the beginning, I missed eating fish; vegan fish just didn’t taste the same.

“But as time went by, I got used to not eating this and that; I slowly lost my cravings,” she admitted, adding that she first decided to go vegan after finding out about the impact of the meat industry on the environment.

Since going 100% plant-based, Fatini says that she has been able to focus better. “I have also lost a lot of weight!”

Although she now finds it easy, she understands why a lot of people struggle to go vegan.

“I never thought I could do it, but once you try, you learn a lot of things along the way. After you know about the vegan alternatives to meat, eggs and dairy, it’s actually very easy,” she pointed out.

Having been vegan since November 2020, Jaspreet Kaur joined the ‘MyVeganuari’ campaign to find out more about the other vegan options around her.

“When I first started, I thought I had to cook all my meals as no restaurant was going to cater to my diet, but after pledging for ‘MyVeganuari’, I realised that there are so many options out there.

“In fact, there’s even a restaurant quite close to where I live!” says the 23-year-old chemical engineering student.

According to Jaspreet, she initially decided to embark on a plant-based diet for health reasons. “Along the way, I started discovering more about veganism; I found out about the animal cruelty in factory farming and I didn’t want to contribute to it.”

Since she was no longer consuming meat at that point, she decided she might as well go all the way, she said, adding that she was vegetarian for two years before turning vegan.

She said that although she initially faced difficulties in getting some of her family members to understand what veganism is all about, they’ve since become more supportive of her diet.

In addition, Jaspreet claims that she now feels more energetic. “I used to barely be able to move after eating chicken rice. In contrast, I can still move about and do things after a vegan meal,” she said, adding that she also performs better during her workout sessions.

After turning vegan however, Jaspreet discovered that she had an iron deficiency. “But it doesn’t mean I have to go back to eating meat; I take iron pills instead, as advised by my doctor.”

Even though Adelyn Loo has been vegan for five years, she joined ‘MyVeganuari’ with the hopes of creating more awareness.

“After pledging, I shared it with my friends and family and invited them to give it a try,” said the 43-year-old, adding that the vegan community in Malaysia is still small.

In addition, she was also glad to come across more food providers who are actually vegan themselves.

“Prior to this, we were quite hesitant to eat at certain places because some people still confuse veganism with vegetarianism,” said the founder of Nourish N Nibbs, a company that sells wholesome vegan snacks which was also one of the partners in this year’s ‘MyVeganuari’.

“It’s also difficult to find healthy vegan snacks, especially ones from companies that are 100% vegan,” she explained, adding that they gave away goody bags as a way to further encourage those who had pledged.

Loo’s son, Karev Tan, has been vegan for four years now. “It’s not easy in the beginning, but it gets easier once you get used to it,” said the precocious 11-year-old.

“You can start by doing ‘Meatless Monday’ or trying plant-based food a few times a week; a single plant-based meal can make a difference.

“This is what I usually say to people: ‘you can start small and end big, because the whole food plant-based way of life is the future.’”

You can check out Nourish N Nibbs on Instagram.