Derek Simnett

Derek SImnett is a Canadian fitness influencer, body builder and Certified Nutritional Practitioner. His company and YouTube channel is called Simnett Nutrition where he provides plant-based diet plans, workout routines and other fitness advice, as well as debunking myths about vegan diets.

Why Derek Simnett is vegan

Derek Simnett is vegan for the animals and for health.

Derek Simnett became vegan in 2011, sparked by a passion for health¹Simnett Nutrition. 2026. Meet Your Vegan Nutritionist. Available: https://simnettnutrition.com/about/ [Accessed 14 September 2026]. and a concern for the animals.²The Veganologist. 2017. An Interview with Derek Simnett. Available: https://medium.com/@VeganAndy/an-interview-with-derek-simnett-3ee2307edb7a [Accessed 10 June 2021].

Derek was first introduced to plant-based eating by a girl he was dating. He started trying to improve his eating habits by buying more “ethically-sourced” animal flesh until he realised that wasn’t cutting it. He then made the decision to go fully vegan so that he was living inline with his values.

“We grow up eating meat and our society promotes that style of eating, so admitting that it is wrong and you’ve been eating unhealthily and unethically is hard. And of course, for men; there is so much hype around protein, which is coupled with animal protein, and that they need it for muscle mass. But also going back to our caveman times where you see the iconic caveman with a big cooked chicken in one hand a blunt weapon in the other around a fire, and that is typical of being a man. This is also part of the appeal for the paleo diet — it’s a sexy idea that we are hunters, when for the most part we just go to the grocery for our meat.”³The Veganologist. 2017. An Interview with Derek Simnett. Available: https://medium.com/@VeganAndy/an-interview-with-derek-simnett-3ee2307edb7a [Accessed 10 June 2021].