I GREW UP WITH MY FAMILY’S VERSION
of a traditional Christmas, including roast
turkey with all the trimmings. When my
wife Sarah and I were first married and
creating our own traditions we did the
same kind of thing with our two boys, John
and Matthew. So it was a surprise when,
some years later, Matthew came back from
his first term at university saying he’d like a
vegan Christmas lunch. We decided
straight away that we would all be vegan
that year, and in fact it was fun finding
recipes to use; the lunch was lovely.
On reflection, I realised I’d already been
eating less meat anyway. But that
Christmas lunch brought it into focus for
me. It was partly about having a healthy
diet, but I was also becoming increasingly
troubled by some farming practices. So I
gradually transitioned to a vegetarian diet,
before taking the extra step
of cutting out all dairy
foods and going
completely plant-based.
Sarah did the same, and it
meant reinventing all our
regular meal plans, as well as telling others
about our new dietary requirements
whenever we were out.
A couple of months later I had a sudden
hankering for some real meat sausages, so
I bought some from a farmer’s market stall,
the best kind you can get, and I tucked in.
But half-way through I found I simply
wasn’t enjoying them, and what’s more my
digestive system couldn’t cope – I had an
uncomfortable 24 hours. It’s
amazing how tuned-in our
bodies are to the food
we eat, and those sausages
certainly reminded me how
‘fearfully and wonderfully’ our
bodies are made, as Psalm 139:14 puts it.
The number of people choosing a plantbased
diet has risen significantly over the
past decade or so, and that means it’s now
much easier when you’re at a restaurant or
buying food. There are nearly always vegan