Experts predict that veganism will go mainstream in 2018; this claim is supported by the rise of new restaurants, food delivery boxes (e.g., Purple Carrot) and food options tapping into this popular new dietary form. Many music festivals and events are also jumping on the vegan bandwagon. For example, less than two months before headlining Coachella in April, Beyoncé announced that she was adopting a vegan diet for 44 days as part of her Coachella training regime. Festival attendees were also spoiled with a plethora of vegan options to choose from, as you can see on the Instagram post by Eat Drink Vegan below, announcing all the vegan-food vendors at Coachella.

Yet it seems that the health craze has brought the cheating game to a whole new level, with cheat days being part of the weekly mix, and the mantra being ‘if you cheat, you’d better cheat right’. One example is the so-called freakshakes, where the idea is to pile as much of every sweet thing you can possibly think of on top of cold brewed coffee, chocolate milk or milk. A large part of the drink’s appeal (if it still can be called a drink) is due to its social media success and the Instagram worthiness of the often-beautiful sweet creations. The shakes have become hugely popular and so have multiple other extreme indulgence concepts, such as cookie-dough bars, Thai rolled ice cream, colorful soft serves… In the midst of this health craze, it seems that we all occasionally crave for a portion of cheat treats. And if we do go overboard, we do it right. Life is too short not to enjoy it to the fullest, so savor those cheat days; and if you dare, have a go for that (vegan) freakshake.