Lu Ban Restaurant leads the way for Veganuary 2020

We’ve completed Dry January, renewed gym memberships, and as New Year fast approaches most of us will be looking to hit up 2020 as a new version of our best selves.

As focus on the benefits of modifying our diet and food-intake increases, a lot of us are looking for alternatives – and going vegan with Veganuary is not only fantastic news for us, but a huge help in easing our social conscious and supporting the welfare of animals.

That’s why The Baltic’s innovative Lu Ban restaurant, which specialises in recipes and techniques from the Tianjin region of China, is leading the way in offering convenient Vegan alternatives you can try at home, or from the incredible Lu Ban restaurant which includes a dedicated Vegan Kingdom menu.

More than a quarter of a million people took part in Veganuary’s 2019, with over 500 brands, restaurants and supermarkets promoting the campaign, and more than 200 new vegan products and menus launched in the UK market alone, which basically suggests, the more of us who switch to vegan, the more convenient it will be to adopt the lifestyle.

This year, Veganuary invites us to explore going vegan for 31 days as part of a commitment to adopting a meat and dairy-free lifestyle

This could mean a big step towards helping to end cruel Animal Farming methods, ease environmental concerns – as approximately 60% of the Agriculture industry’s gas emissions are caused by Animal Farming – and make a difference to our own health and wellbeing in the process, with some people taking part in Veganuary already reporting improvements within that first month, such as better sleep and clearer skin, which sounds pretty good to us, but we admit, rethinking your diet can be challenging.

Up until the 1980’s when western consumerism became part of Chinese culture, most people lived a vegetarian lifestyle due to religious influences from Buddhism and other Dharmic faiths, but as recent studies show around 90% of the Chinese population is lactose intolerant, dairy products are off the menu, producing an increase in vegan lifestyles.

In the last few years alone, interest in meat-free meals has soared in China. According to a report by Euromonitor, China was projected to be the fastest-growing market for vegan products between 2015 and 2020, with a growth rate of 17.2 percent – faster than any other international growth rate – but while Chinese people are increasingly aware of the negative consequences of animal products, being vegan, or vegetarian for that matter, can be daunting as a typical Chinese meal contains a lot of meat.

But then, Lu Ban is far from your typical Chinese restaurant.

Lu Ban’s Master Yu’s Five Flavour Cucumber salad and Beijing Faux Duck options, along with popular dishes such as the Chinese mushroom broth with bok choi, smoked tofu and black truffle, or Master Yakuan’s Huajuan Steam Bun with red bean and Szechuan chilli oil, support vegan diets, and introduce us to a whole new cuisine of favourite flavours and enjoyable cooking methods which could play a vital role in the health of the planet and ending the needless suffering of animals kept in distressing farming conditions.

Veganuary 2020 is the perfect opportunity to explore a whole new menu of delicious, healthy vegan food, and it will be interesting to see what studies report in terms of the benefits for ourselves, our planet and the welfare of animals in 2021.

Enjoy and let us know how you get on! Further info on Veganuary here

If you haven’t yet discovered Lu Ban head down to Stanhope Street in The Baltic and if you’re interested in Lu Ban’s vegan cuisine. View Lu Ban’s Vegan Kingdom menu here