The Vegan Challenge

With Vegan Athletes Leading The Charge, A Surprising Number Of Men Are Swerving Flesh In Favour Of Falafel. Find Out Why Plant-based Eating Could Change Your Life

- Jack Phillips

“Don’t do it. Your farts will smell so rancid you’ll have the bats fallin’ from the trees.”

That’s the typical advice I’m offered when I tell friends that I’m toying with the idea of ditching meat Monday through Friday for a month. For a group of ‘lads’ whose love of sport is matched only by our love of Saturday night pints and Sunday afternoon steaks, the notion that I’m about to swerve a cutlet for a chick pea is, well, hilarious.

But, according to Google trends, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and our friends over at Nielsen, I’m not alone in questioning the role meat plays in our diets. According to Roy Morgan Research, between 2012 and 2016, the number of Australian vegetarians rose from 1.7 million to almost 2.1 million. That’s an increase from 9.7 per cent of the population to just over 11.2 per cent.

You’d be forgiven for assuming the trend is location specific. But it’s not just hipster bubbles like Bondi Beach and Byron Bay, or hippie communes in rural Victoria, that are sold on plant power. No, according to figures released by Euromonitor International, Australia has the third fastest growing vegan population on the planet.

As I tie my laces and run out onto a soccer pitch for five-a-side footy with a bunch of meat-mad 30-year-olds that first week, I feel slightly alienated from my fellow players. But the truth is, by choosing not to eat our fourlegged friends, I’m not exactly an instigator of some alternative counter-cultural movement. Rather, I’m an adoptee of a new health shift in which men from all walks of life look to a plant-heavy diet to improve their health. I feel like I’m riding the tide of nutritional science. I only hope my stomach concurs.

RUB OF THE GREEN