Here’s why TikTok says vegans can eat bacon

If you’ve already given up on your 2026 rebrand because you couldn’t stick to your six gym sessions a week and no-sweet-treats resolutions, adopting a “vegan plus bacon” mindset may be the answer to all your problems. 

TikTok creator @addietheoptimist broke the idea down in a recent video: “Someone on here went viral because they said if you think you can’t go vegan because you love bacon too much, just become vegan plus bacon,” she explained in the now-viral clip. 

“I’m here to tell you you can just apply that mentality to so many things in your life.”

While the original creator was referencing harm reduction in relation to veganism (that if you only eat bacon sometimes but are 100% vegan otherwise, it’s still making a difference), the potential applications of the general concept behind “vegan plus bacon” are limitless. Don’t feel like going to the gym? Rather than not going at all, go and give 10%… eve if that looks like 10 minutes walking on the treadmill, scrolling TikTok. 

“You don’t have to be imprisoned by your own rules,” the creator concluded. 

The video currently has over two million views, with the comments full of examples of instances where others have unknowingly adopted the vegan plus bacon mentality. 

One person quit smoking, but still permits the occasional cigarette while among friends. Another is pescatarian, but allows themselves steak once or twice a year. Others are “California sober,” when a person gives up on alcohol and hard drugs, but continues to smoke weed. 

“Perfect is the enemy of done,” as one comment read. “Anything worth doing 100% is still worth doing at 10%,” another suggested. 

Perfectionism allows no room for mistakes or occasional slipups. Something has to be perfect, or it’s not good enough. What’s more, researchers found rates of perfectionism have surged in recent decades, having been a core part of Western culture since the ‘80s. There could be a number of causes for this, including pressure from school or parents—and today, social media also creates an additional pressure to portray a perfect image online. 

But perfectionistic tendencies have been linked to an alarming number of clinical issues, including depression and anxiety, even in children, as well as early mortality and suicide. Meanwhile, one of the most effective protections against anxiety and depression is showing compassion to oneself. 

Here, the vegan plus bacon mindset acts as the perfect counter-narrative to a culture unhealthily obsessed with self-improvement. Sometimes good enough is good enough. 

And, as I recently read somewhere (i.e., saw on TikTok): such a mindset shift “only has to make sense to me,” and “I don’t feel like explaining it to anyone else.”