To understand how we got here, it helps to look back at how veganism first entered the mainstream.

Veganism is not a new concept, stretching back to ancient Indian and West Asian cultures. The actual word “veganism” was coined thousands of years later, in 1944; and the first Veganuary campaign launched in 2014, officially bringing the diet mainstream. In 2018 came The Game Changers, a hit Netflix documentary featuring prominent athletes like Lewis Hamilton and Arnold Schwarzenegger praising the benefits of a vegan diet for performance. By 2019, veganism was mainstream: A quarter of all new food products were labeled vegan, and sales of meat-free items had surged 40% in five years. The Economist declared it “The Year of the Vegan.” 

Six years on, it seems many have lost their appetite for veganism. Former celebrity advocates—including Miley Cyrus, Beyonce, and more recently Lizzo—have all publicly stepped away from the lifestyle. Even Schwarzenegger came out since his documentary cameo to report that his diet today is only about 80% vegan. Many cite health reasons for the switch. This is a far cry from the mid-2010s, when veganism was practically synonymous with health and wellness. In my case, I decided to scale back my vegan lifestyle to boost energy levels through protein-rich breakfast staples like eggs and Greek yogurt—though achieving similar protein intake on a vegan diet is entirely possible with careful planning.

For many, of course, veganism has always been more than a diet; it’s a lifestyle that extends to clothing, cosmetics, and personal ethics. But today, its time in the spotlight has been eclipsed by a new cultural obsession with protein—specifically that coming from meat.

Vegans have long been targets of unflattering stereotypes. But in today’s culture wars, right-wing media recast veganism as a symbol of “wokeness,” dismissing plant-based men with infantilizing labels like “soy boys.” Meanwhile, the rise of the carnivore diet—promoted by manosphere influencers and podcasters, and a handful of contrarian doctors—has become part of a broader rightward cultural shift that equates strength, masculinity, and national pride with meat consumption. Once a fringe regimen, the all-meat diet now feeds into a worldview that prizes traditional gender roles and is outwardly skeptical of science. 

Under Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s controversial banner of “Make America Healthy Again,” eating steak has become more than a dietary choice—it’s a rejection of liberal food politics and an endorsement for “common sense” masculinity. 

In the eyes of many men across the United States, eating meat is considered a sign of strength. In 2024, 71% of American adults said they were trying to eat more protein compared to 59% in 2022, according to an International Food Information Council study; meanwhile, sales of protein bars, powders, and drinks increased by 24.2%. “There’s a lot of fear around the need for protein because people don’t really know how much they need,” said David Robinson Simon, a lawyer and author of Meatonomics. “But this exaggerated sense of heightened need for protein is actually driven, at least in the U.S., by the meat industry itself.” 

The science and information available on this is mixed. Federal guidelines recommend that most adults get about 0.36 grams of protein per pound of body weight per day—though individual needs can vary. But if online “meatfluencers” are to be believed, that number should be much higher. 

It’s not just meat that’s making a comeback. Many are swapping their oat flat whites for cow’s milk again. Even Oatly, once the poster child of the plant-based movement, has come under increased scrutiny as consumers take a harder look at its ingredients. 

This shift is unfolding alongside a broader backlash against ultra-processed foods. Fueled by bestsellers like Food or Fiction? and Ultra-Processed People, the very products that once helped make veganism more accessible are now under fire as the pendulum swings back toward “real,” “raw,” and minimally processed foods. It’s what trad wives—who promote traditional values and “natural” health practices under the guise of lifestyle content—are calling “ancestral eating.”

Plant-based convenience products like meat substitutes and readymade meals helped ease many consumers into veganism. But now, they’re increasingly being left on the shelf thanks to ingredient lists packed with emulsifiers, inverted sugar syrups, and stabilizers. 

“In the last several years, I’ve become much more focused on eating healthy—more whole foods, fewer processed meat substitutes—for both me and my wife,” Simon said. “I think a lot of people in the vegan movement are going through the same sort of evolution. And that is certainly driving the decline in consumption of foods like Beyond Meat and Impossible.” 

Still, Simon doesn’t believe this signals the end of veganism. “The movement is just growing up,” he said. But that doesn’t mean the shift isn’t without growing pains. Research suggests the cost-of-living crisis is a key factor in veganism’s perceived decline—for many, plant-based alternatives are simply too expensive. On average, vegan products cost 14% more per serving than their non-vegan counterparts, according to one survey. And when budgets tighten, pricier items such as meat substitutes get dropped from shopping lists.

Eco-fatigue is another reason veganism is seeing a downturn. While some view recent headlines—raging wildfires, catastrophic floods, record-breaking heat—as a call to action, for others, the relentless pace of climate news has had the opposite effect. If the planet is burning, increasingly nihilistic logic goes, we may as well enjoy a burger while we watch.