Simon Hill: 'Vegan doesn’t have to mean eating fake meat'

What if we told you that Chris Hemsworth’s Thor: Ragnarok body was built on a purely plant-based diet? Throw out everything you thought you knew about chicken fillets and tinned tuna, because PlantProof.com guru Simon Hill is here to tell you that, yes, you can get huge on a vegan diet.

And, yes, he’s heard all the myths about going vegan meaning forgoing gains at the gym. “The majority of the very, very large, strong, powerful animals, like gorillas and elephants, they only eat plants, and you can see muscle literally hanging off them. And there's a number of top vegan bodybuilders, so you can certainly bulk eating just plants,” he says with a smile.

After gradually removing animal products from his diet over the course of a few years, Simon was careful not to fall into the time-honored trap of vegan mock meats and “accidentally vegan” chips and cookies. “I think it's important to differentiate between a junk food plant-based or junk food vegan diet and whole food. I didn't transition to a junk food vegan diet. I transitioned into a diet that was made up of predominantly whole foods, which means the foods that are basically in a natural state,” he explains.

While many come to veganism or plant-based eating for environmental or ethical reasons, Simon was most interested in its health benefits. But he agrees that a plant-based lifestyle is beneficial whichever way you look at it. “Yes, there are other pillars of veganism, animal activists, and there's climate change and things like that, and I appreciate people that are voices for those pillars of veganism,” he says. “My journey with veganism has been about health. And I love the fact that the way that I eat does impact those areas positively.”