What Happened To The Vegan Movement? Rich & Simon Hill On The Rise & Fall Of Plant-Based Eating

What It Covers

Rich Roll and Simon Hill, a nutrition scientist and author of *The Proof is in the Plants*, conduct an autopsy on the plant-based movement's collapse after its 2020 peak. They identify three causes: dishonest health messaging, counterproductive vegan advocacy tactics, and post-COVID cultural shifts linking meat consumption to masculinity and political identity.

Key Questions Answered

• •Messaging integrity: Beyond Meat's stock collapsing 99% damaged the broader plant-based movement because influential advocates framed ultra-processed meat alternatives as health foods rather than transition tools. When consumers discovered these products cost two to three times more per pound than chicken, tasted inferior, and were heavily processed, trust eroded across the entire movement—not just the specific companies involved.
• •Nutrition honesty: A plant-exclusive diet cannot be argued as definitively superior to Mediterranean, DASH, or pescatarian patterns on human health evidence alone. The strongest case for veganism remains ethical and environmental. Communicating absolutes—that all dairy causes cancer or all animal protein is harmful—creates a trust deficit that collapses when mainstream science surfaces more nuanced findings about fermented dairy and fatty fish.
• •Protein and supplementation protocol: Removing animal protein without strategic replacement causes real nutrient shortfalls. Target 1.2g protein per kilogram of bodyweight minimum, or 1.6g if physically active, prioritizing legumes, tofu, tempeh, and lentils. Add a morning protein shake with peanut butter, berries, and leafy greens for roughly 40 additional grams. Take a daily multivitamin plus a DHA/EPA omega-3 supplement—either fish oil or algae oil—as baseline insurance.
• •Advocacy strategy: Shaming and moral absolutism alienate far more people than they recruit. A more effective model follows attraction over promotion: embody the lifestyle visibly, make it aspirational, and respond only when curiosity is expressed. Getting 80% of the population to adopt Meatless Mondays produces more measurable animal welfare outcomes than converting 1% to strict veganism, making incremental inclusion strategically superior to purity enforcement.
• •Masculinity and diet: The association between meat consumption and masculinity functions as a meat-industry marketing construct, not an authentic signal of male identity. Long-term partner attraction correlates more strongly with emotional capacity—specifically the ability to listen without defensiveness—than with dietary choices or physical signals. Developing this skill places someone statistically above most competitors in relationship viability, making it a higher-leverage investment than optimizing food choices for identity signaling.
• •Practical entry point: Start by replacing red, white, and processed meat with legumes seasoned with familiar flavors, since these proteins are largely flavor-neutral vehicles. Avoid the common error of removing animal protein without substituting equivalent plant protein sources. Whole, minimally processed plant foods—beans, lentils, chickpeas, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables—form the evidence-backed foundation, not plant-based packaged products, which function closer to fast food nutritionally.