Vegan

7.6 Million Vegans?

https://veganoutreach.org/76-million-vegans/

By Jack Norris, Executive Director, and Rania Hannan, Research and Assessment Specialist

On August 1, Gallup released a poll in which they asked people whether they were vegetarian and vegan, and then compared the results to the same poll they conducted in 2012 (1). Gallup framed their results as, “Few Americans Vegetarian or Vegan,” but that really depends on your perspective—applying their results to the adult population shows that 7.6 million U.S. adults consider themselves to be vegan and that’s a considerable increase from earlier decades.

Gallup found that while the percentage of vegetarians has remained at 5% since 2012, the percentage of vegans had increased from 2% to 3%—a 50% increase in six years. And if you do the math based on the U.S. adult population from 2011 and 2017—the years they used in their calculations (2)—the number of vegans has increased by an estimated 2.8 million in those six years.

There are two caveats to this poll:

Unlike the Vegetarian Resource Group’s polls of vegetarians and vegans which ask people what foods they eat, Gallup asked people if they “consider themselves to be” a vegetarian or vegan. The Vegetarian Resource Group’s pollsters estimated there to be 3.7 million adult vegans in the U.S. in 2016 based on food frequency data (3).
The margin of error for these Gallup polls is wide at ±4%.

That said, the trends point in the right direction and reinforce our experience on the ground—the number of vegans is growing. Thank you to everyone working to spread a vegan lifestyle and end the suffering of farmed animals!

References

1. Snapshot: Few Americans Vegetarian or Vegan. Gallup. August 1, 2018.

2. Adults U.S. population taken from U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division (2011). Accessed August 10, 2018. Found U.S. adult population to be 237,734,073 in 2011 and 252,063,800 in 2017.

3. How many adults in the U.S. are vegetarian and vegan? Vegetarian Resource Group. Accessed August 10, 2018.

Vegan

Summer Spinach Salad with Chickpea Olive Crumble

A fully loaded, flavor packed, protein rich summer spinach salad with an umami-packed crisp chickpea hemp seed olive crumble, nutrient dense greens, and creamy, vibrant tahini lemon dressing. A perfect hot weather dinner. (23g protein and 15g fiber per serving, (gluten-free, soy-free, nut-free, high protein)

This is a fantastically hearty summer spinach salad. It has so many textures and flavors, and it has 80 grams of protein for the entire salad. That’s 20 grams of protein per serving. For a salad!

There is protein from the chickpeas, from the hemp seeds, and from the nutritional yeast in the chickpea crumble. There’s also protein from the tahini in the dressing, the non-dairy yogurt (depending on the brand), as well as a little protein from the greens that you use in the salad. You can amp up the protein even more by sprinkling it with some hemp seeds before serving or adding some of my tofu bacon bits, or other high protein toppings.

fork taking a bite of summer spinach salad with chickpea olive crumbles

The salad has this creamy texture from the dressing, the crunch from the fresh veggies, and crispiness from the chickpea crumbles, which we bake until they’re crispy-crunchy. The umami comes from the olives and the sun-dried tomato, and the refreshing, fresh flavor comes from lemon zest, the cucumbers, and any other crunchy veggies and greens.

It’s just a fabulous combination of flavors and textures. The combination of tahini and yogurt helps mellow tahini’s strong flavor and makes for a rich, creamy dressing.

Why You’ll Love this Summer Spinach Salad

incredible combination of flavors and textures! Crunchy veggies, creamy dressing, and savory, crisp chickpea-olive crumble.
easy to make in about 30 minutes
packed with veggies and protein
naturally gluten-free, soy-free, and nut-free