Today's Boston Globe features an article about men who are vegans. Actually, make that "hegans." Yes that's right, we have a new vegan subcategory. Hegans are "real men" (whatever that's supposed to mean) who have adopted a vegan diet for health reasons. One recent convert gave credit to The China Study, and its research linking animal protein to the acceleration of the growth of cancer, diabetes, and heart disease, for scaring him away from cheeseburgers. And he's now converted his wife and 8-year-old daughter (not the other way around for once).
Another health conscious guy featured in the article gave this choice quote: "Sure there is a stigma attached to it, that it's for yuppie, tree-hugging, emaciated weaklings. That is far from the truth. I like to say that real men eat plants." (Just wondering, what's so wrong with hugging trees anyway?).
Apparently there are no hard numbers on how many hegans exist because "by nature most men don't make their eating habits public." Except when they eat out at Candle Cafe, I guess.
A choice quote from the article that I can relate to (and I'm a "shegan," not a hegan) was this: "The thing I hear all the time is: 'Are you still on that diet?' It's the farthest thing from a diet. I don't feel limited at all. If anything, what I eat has expanded not contracted. I will never diet ever again."
"They are hegans. They are healthy. And they are here to stay." Well, macho grandstanding aside, I, for one, hope they do.
To summarize: whether you're a hegan or a shegan, together we are "wegan."
Other categories that may also apply to some vegans are "teegan"--tiny vegans--like Thom Yorke or "v-emo-gans" like Dashboard Confessional. Let the categorizing begin!