We are evolving - being vegan has normalised

The first time I met a vegan was in London in the Eighties, when it was still so niche as to be regarded as a kind of gastronomic disability. 

He had the air of a man whose task was so Sisyphusean it had drained the colour from his face. This was when avocados were something of a novelty you had to ripen in your airing cupboard for a week and nobody had ever heard of almond butter. Today, there are almost 550,000 vegans in the UK, and interest in Ireland is growing so rapidly that the Vegan Society of Ireland has run out of information packs.

Veganism is butching up. Handing out water to participants at a marathon in my adopted home town recently, I was struck by how many sweaty, ultra-focused athletes bore the words ‘Vegan Runner’ on their fronts. Vegan nutrition is no longer an oxymoron suggesting pale, willowy poets or raging fanatics; it is broadening out, including us all. Vegan boxers, weight-lifters, swimmers — all muscle and strength and power.