Fad diets are this century’s new religion

‘LOOKS like meat, tastes like meat but isn’t meat’ is the latest on-trend option to tempt those who slavishly follow food trends. Google searches for plant-based food have risen very sharply during 2018, while searches for gluten-free (GF) food have fallen. Vegan food searches went from a score of 17 out of 100 some 10 years ago, to a score of 88 in 2018. Boom.

This means that the humble vegetable is about to take a starring culinary role in our lives, while the oft-ridiculed GF diet is set to fall off a cliff.

Industry food-trend experts confirm that ‘alternative proteins’ and the ‘flexitarian diet’ are the key food trends for 2018.

Yes, new to me too. Apparently ‘flexitarians’ are vegetarians and vegans who eat meat, fish, dairy and poultry products when it suits. So à la carte vegans and vegetarians, so to speak. Apparently there are quite a few of them too, and this is the key market that companies are keen to cultivate for obvious reasons.

So a ‘flexitarian’ gets to claim the moral high-ground by apparently eschewing meat on a part-time basis. Sorry, this is a black and white issue. You either eat flesh or you don’t. Being ‘a little bit vegan’ is just nonsense.

Surely this is a huge disservice to actual vegans, who make their choices solely on the basis of ethics? They are a group that I have the utmost respect for.

When you learn that Iceland, the budget frozen food company, is launching 13 own-brand, plantbased food products – including vegan chorizo – you know that something significant is happening in the food world.

When you add in vegans, fruitarians, pescatarians and vegivores, the stage is beginning to look a little crowded on the food-trends front.

There can be little doubt that these food-trend movements are a type of 21st century religion for some, where self-worship and self-absorption are considered worthy and virtuous. They provide a lifestyle, a community and they offer a sense of belonging to a group.

This is important in our increasingly fragmented society.

Naturally this is music to the ears of purveyors of food. Companies will follow the dollar and meet consumer demand. Hedge funds have already invested heavily in the vegan food industry, while hipster entrepreneurs are abuzz with the possibilities. Supermarkets and restaurants are frantically playing catch-up.

A quick look around your local supermarket will reveal an increasing choice of plant-based prepared meals. A new trend means new business, with a likely premium price tag. There is novelty value in celeriac steaks and sweet potato burgers after all.

Big business is watching you and is hoping to tip your cash into its back pockets. This is capitalism at work.

There is no question that the vegan community is growing at a fast pace. It is now moving into the mainstream. However, this may ultimately be its undoing as increasing popularity means less cachet.

This new wave of veganism is significant and potentially worrying news for the Irish agricultural sector.

While there are no official figures available here, comparable figures for the UK show that numbers grew from 150,00 to almost 550,000 recorded vegans in a decade.

A BBC survey conducted in the UK by Mintel this year indicates that the diet is most popular among women in the 15-34 age group. They outnumber men by two to one.

The top three reasons given for becoming vegan were, in descending order: health, weight management and animal welfare. It is notable that the top two reasons are personal rather than ethical.

Social media was the primary source of information for most respondents.

Vloggers, YouTube documentaries and social media influencers also played a part in the decision to become vegan.

‘Veganuary’, whereby people are asked to try the diet for a month, has undoubtedly helped swell the ranks of the ‘flexitarians’.

While taking responsibility for your health is without doubt a good thing, surely the key question is whether a diet – based primarily on processed food, albeit plant-derived – amounts to a healthy diet in the first place?

STUDYING nutrition and learning to cook might be a good starting point before making significant changes to your diet. This has to beat relying on processed meat-replacement products like burgers, sausages and suchlike.

There is a danger that some young people with eating disorders – whose motivation is weight loss – may hide behind a socially acceptable vegan diet and not receive the help they need.

However, these are first-world problems, a by-product of affluence if you will. If you look at the typical diet in poor countries in Africa and Asia, the diet has always been largely plant-based, because meat is expensive to buy.

Is veganism merely a passing fad or is it here to stay? Google should be in a position to answer that question for us in a couple of years time.

There is a danger some young people with eating disorders may hide behind a socially acceptable vegan diet