How vegan diet went from fringe to mainstream, and its advocates in Hong Kong and worldwide

When Penny Adams discovered she had stage 2 breast cancer, she switched to a vegetarian diet – but only when she ate at home. That was in 2003, about a year before the Australian teacher relocated to Hong Kong. In 2006 she became completely vegetarian – eschewing all meat, and in 2011, she switched to a vegan diet, giving up dairy products and eggs.

Today, Adams’ cancer is in remission. The 62-year-old has dropped her excess weight, suffers from fewer aches and pains than other women her age, has no problem walking long distances, and recovers quickly from exertion. She puts it down to her consumption of whole, plant-based foods.

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Over the years, Adams’ personal research into veganism has uncovered a correlation between dairy products and reproductive cancers and the inflammatory properties of meat and animal by-products. These findings, she says, convinced her that she made the right decision. “It’s wonderful to know that my dietary choices make the likelihood of a return of the cancer quite remote,” she says.

Adams, who now lives in Bali with her partner, Wayne Furlong, enjoys a healthy, whole food, plant-based diet of fruit, cereals, seeds, tofu, almond milk, leafy greens, coconut water, and soup.

Furlong, who is also Australian and who lived in Hong Kong from 2004 to 2016, feasts on porridge, muesli, rice milk, oil-free tempeh burgers, mushrooms, beans, rice, nuts, and fruit smoothies.

Since switching to a plant-based diet, the 63-year-old, who is also a teacher, has lost 13kg, resolved his high blood pressure and cholesterol issues – without medication – and rarely gets ill or feels tired.