Considering a plant-based diet? Whether it's for health benefits, environmental concerns, animal welfare, or simply "Not wanting to find surprise gristle ever again," making the vegan switch has never been easier. Simon Hill, plant-based advocate, believes you can tailor a vegan meal to any health and fitness lifestyle by taking advantage of all the animal-free products on grocery store shelves, and understanding how to be creative with plant-based cooking.
Introduction to Simon Hill
Simon Hill is an Australian fitness expert, physiotherapist, and nutritionist. He is an advocate of a plant-based diet. Hill is also a millionaire entrepreneur who made his fortune selling tea and coconut vodka. He has been making waves with some recent Instagram posts showing off his muscular build, which he says he built by following a strictly plant-based diet.
Hill's entry into the plant-based world started when he was a teenager and his father experienced a severe heart attack at just 41. His father’s cardiologist told Hill and his brother that they’d need to exercise caution, as cardiovascular disease risk runs in families.
He authored “The Proof is in the Plants,” advocating for a plant-rich diet based on current nutrition research. On its debut week The Proof is in the Plants was the #1 non-fiction book in Australia. He continues to deepen his understanding of human health by being actively involved in research investigating the links between nutrition and mental health.
Today, Hill’s podcast is a source of health information on range of topics that go far beyond beans and greens. Recent notable guests include Christopher Gardner, PhD, the researcher who led the vegan vs. omnivore twin study featured in the Netflix documentary “You Are What You Eat,” and bestselling author and OB/GYN Dr. Jen Gunter, who went on The Proof to debunk myths around the menstrual cycle.
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His podcast, The Proof, a space where he sits down with domain-specific experts, has surpassed 40 million listens, exploring various lifestyle factors impacting well-being.
Simon Hill's Approach to Plant-Based Eating
Tailoring a Vegan Meal
Simon Hill believes you can tailor a vegan meal to any health and fitness lifestyle by taking advantage of all the animal-free products on grocery store shelves, and understanding how to be creative with plant-based cooking. According to Hill, “You can lose weight, you can sustain weight, or you can bulk. It's just sourcing your nutrients from different foods."
Transitioning to Veganism
Going full-on vegan can seem daunting for some people. Simon says to take it slow. “Listen to your body, do it in your own time,” he says. “Everyone is going to transition differently, and there's so many different factors - what you're putting on your plate, where your health is currently at, what was your diet like before, what's your gut bacteria like, and all of these differences.”
The Importance of Quality
The most important thing for Simon Hill is the quality of his food. Things like timing are important to a degree, but they're less of a priority for him. Particularly when he's traveling, the number-one thing he focuses on is just maintaining the quality of his diet. He's trying to eat as much whole, minimally processed foods as he can.
Protein Focus
Hill has a bias towards getting protein from plants. He's always seeking about: What foods on my plate are providing protein? He's regularly eating things like tofu and tempeh, lentils, beans, chickpeas. Plant-based milks, like Ripple, for example, are quite high in protein. And around workouts, he'll have a protein powder.
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He also gets some protein from nuts and seeds and whole grains, especially quinoa. But these are a lot less protein-dense than those other protein sources that he mentioned. So he has some focus on protein, and that's because he's training a lot and he wants to support that training.
Diversity of Plants
In addition to protein, Hill is thinking about what are the other plants that he's consuming throughout the day, he thinks diversity is really important. There is quite a bit of literature showing that diversity of plants is really critical to nourishing the microbiome. And when you do that, those microbes reward you by producing chemicals. In a way, the microbiome is kind of like our own personal pharmacy, and we can either nourish it or neglect it. He's looking at making his plate colorful, and throughout the day trying to change exposure-different plants at lunch and dinner than he had for breakfast, and even thinking about the days previously, so that over a week, he's exposing his microbiome to lots of different fruits and vegetables. He thinks that's sometimes overlooked. There's a lot of focus on macronutrients like protein and carbs and fat. But there are so many compounds in our food that don't provide calories that are really important.
Specific Fruits and Vegetables
Hill has a particular focus on some fruits and vegetables, he thinks cruciferous vegetables like broccolini, broccoli, and cauliflower are really powerful, there's quite a bit of literature showing that they're associated with reduced risk of cancers. Dark leafy greens and berries are another two food groups he's trying to make sure that he's consuming on a daily basis-those are particularly good for brain health. There's evidence that some of the compounds in those food groups will help you with your focus, clarity, and memory on a day-to-day basis, but also protect you from neurodegenerative diseases like dementia in the long term.
Defining Plant-Based
Plant-based for Hill is an overarching term that encompasses multiple different types of diets. And they can be plant-rich, plant-predominant, all the way to plant-exclusive or what someone might describe as a vegan diet. So a Mediterranean diet, or a DASH [Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension] diet, that some people might be familiar with, those are technically plant-based dietary patterns, as is a pescatarian diet, as is a vegetarian or vegan diet that is focused on whole, minimally processed foods.
When Hill thinks about a plant-based diet, he's thinking of any diet that is plant-rich or plant-exclusive that has a focus on whole, minimally, minimally processed plant foods. It doesn't contain a lot of ultra-processed foods, which can also be plant-based, but are not associated with good health outcomes.
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Sample Meal Plans and Dietary Strategies
Vegan for a Day
If you’ve been struggling to take the first step into a fully vegan meal plan, take Simon’s advice and try our ‘Vegan for a Day’ menu on for size. Plant-based nutrition has never tasted so good with our Choc Mint Smoothie Bowl.
Halfetarianism
By eating meat or dairy on the 1st, 3rd, 5th of the month, and plant-based on the 2nd, 4th, 6th, and so on, you would reduce your intake of animal products by half over a full year. Entourage actor and environmental activist Adrian Grenier eats this way and has dubbed it ‘halfetarianism’. This is a great example of someone getting creative with their dietary choices to benefit the environment. As Adrian says: “You don’t have to give up entirely. You don’t have to become a vegan, you can do something very moderate but extremely impactful.” And he’s right!
Swapping Red Meat and Dairy
Swapping red meat for legumes & dairy milk for plant-based milk. Hill considers these swaps one of the greatest returns on investment you can get for your health and the planet’s health. While dairy can play an important part in providing essential nutrients like calcium, we do have other options like leafy greens, soy and nuts. Swapping red meat and dairy for plant-based alternatives has also been connected with a possible reduction in our risk of heart disease. As for the Earth we live on, dairy and red meat farming rank very high in terms of food industry contributors to the acceleration of climate change, and are also responsible for enormous amounts of deforestation, ocean acidification and water use.
Hill's Diet
Hill splits up his daily calorie intake into a 50/30/20 model. Fifty percent of his daily calories come from carbs in the form of brown rice, quinoa, and legumes like chickpeas; 30 percent comes from protein including soy, organic tofu, tempeh, and beans; and 20 percent comes from fats found in nuts, avocados, and "heaps of hempseed."
Hill said that everything he eats is typically available to the masses.
Simon Hill's Training Routine
Hill is building a rock-hard physique one broccoli floret at a time. If you want to go vegan, there are ways to follow the diet without sacrificing your fitness goals.
“I’m pretty strong on intermittent fasting,” Hill added. That means he eats his meals within an 8-hour window, then fasts for 16 hours a day. Intermittent fasting remains slightly controversial, with at least one study proving it’s no more effective than classic calorie restriction. Hill’s usual breakfast includes some overnight oats with lupin flakes, almond milk, berries, and hemp seeds. As for lunch and dinner, Hill enjoys grain bowls stacked with veggies and proteins like tempeh or soy.
Hill works out every day because he'd "go crazy" without it, but keeps each session to 45 minutes or an hour. He does go into the gym, but he doesn’t lift heavy like he used to. Because of his training as a physiotherapist, he likes to create his own moves that are far away from a classic squat or deadlift.
One of his favorite workouts involves hitting the beach with his buddy Tim Robards - a world-class bodyweight expert and the former star of The Bachelor in Australia - to do what's known as an “in and out.” They go into the water to about belly button height and then they turn toward the shore. Through the water there’s a lot of resistance, so essentially you’re pushing through the water and then sprinting all the way to the backside of the beach. They spend the rest of their workout doing soft sand runs for about 4 kilometers - about 2.5 miles - and finish off with some body weight calisthenics.
Hill is training for longevity-that's how he put it at the moment. From a physical capacity to age well, we know that we need good cardiorespiratory health. And in order to achieve that, you need to be doing cardiovascular exercise both at a moderate intensity and high intensity. So he does both of those every week. We know that having strong bones, good bone mineral density, and having good strength is incredibly important as we're aging.
In his day-to-day, across the week, there's specific strength training. Part of his strength training is a real focus on weight-bearing exercise. So he is loading his skeleton. There's a focus on single leg work. He's not just doing resistance training on machines where it's all bilateral. He's doing unilateral exercises that challenge balance. Obviously balance is incredibly important to prevent falls as we age. And then he's got that moderate and high intensity cardiovascular exercise, which is really focused on building aerobic base and metabolic health.
Practical Tips for Embracing a Plant-Based Lifestyle
Start Gradually
Going vegan doesn't have to be an all-or-nothing endeavor. Simon Hill advises individuals to transition at their own pace, listening to their bodies and considering their unique health circumstances.
Focus on Whole, Minimally Processed Foods
Prioritize whole, minimally processed plant foods over ultra-processed vegan options. This ensures you're getting the most nutrients and avoiding unhealthy additives.
Prioritize Protein
Ensure you're getting enough protein from plant-based sources like tofu, tempeh, lentils, beans, chickpeas, nuts, seeds, and plant-based protein powders.
Embrace Diversity
Incorporate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, and grains into your diet to nourish your gut microbiome and obtain a broad spectrum of nutrients.
Experiment with Flavors
Don't be afraid to get creative in the kitchen. Explore different cuisines and flavor combinations to make plant-based eating enjoyable and satisfying.
Addressing Common Concerns and Misconceptions
The Myth of Inadequate Protein
One common misconception is that plant-based diets don't provide enough protein. However, with careful planning and the inclusion of protein-rich plant foods, it's entirely possible to meet your protein needs on a vegan diet.
The "Health Halo" Effect
Be wary of the "health halo" effect, where vegan or plant-based products are automatically assumed to be healthy. Always check the ingredient list and nutritional information to ensure you're making informed choices.
The Importance of B12 Supplementation
Vitamin B12 is primarily found in animal products, so vegans need to supplement with B12 or consume fortified foods to avoid deficiency.