Table of Contents[Hide][Show]
Why plant based diets are not able to support human health over the long term and why most adherents go back to eating meat and other animal foods within a few short years.
Sources of conventional health information seem to be trumpeting the catchphrase plant based diet. Notice the word “vegetarian” or “vegan” is not used perhaps because the vast majority of people find such a diet and its common, associative terms unappealing.
Estimates on the number of people who never eat meat varies somewhere between a paltry 3% and 6%.
Even more telling, the vast majority (75%) who identify as vegetarian end up omnivores again within a few years.
Surprisingly, the Vegetarian Resource Group estimates that only 20-30% of people are good candidates for vegetarianism. (1)
Perhaps this is the reason for this new semantic trend which attempts to repackage vegetarianism simply as “a healthy plant based diet”. Note even cow milk substitutes are now called plant based milk instead of simply dairy-free.
The best selling success of the error-ridden book Blue Zones is one commercial example fueling this semantic change.
There is no doubt that an increase in the number of folks eating a “plant based diet” would result in quite a profit boost for Big Ag and Big Food companies that deal in the various stages of production of textured vegetable soy protein (TVP) and other frankenfood substitutes for meat, dairy, and eggs.
Aside from the big profits to be had should more people embrace this manner of eating, could a “plant based diet” even be healthy?
The 2017 documentary What The Health claims plant based diets to be healthy despite being unable to name a single successful vegan population group that ever existed outside of a few small religious sects that did not reproduce.
Little to No Variety in Modern Food Plants
The reality is that the world today depends on a variety of only 150 food plants. Twenty of these account for 90% of our food. And, of these twenty, only three account for half! What are the Big Three? Rice, corn, and wheat – difficult to digest, grain based carbs that ninety percent of the people who ever lived never even ate!
Considering that there are between 30,000-80,000 edible plants in the world and that traditional cultures such as the American Indian regularly consumed about 1,100 of these, it seems virtually impossible that a “plant based diet” of today would contain enough variety to ensure health.
Surely, a modern “plant based diet” could only lead to nutritional deficiencies and ill health in the long run given these statistics. This especially if a primary source of all those veggies is a daily green smoothie.
Despite the American Indian’s consumption of a wide variety of nutritious food plants from soil that was arguably much richer and more fertile than the monocrop farms of today, guess what? They still ate meat!
What about the hunter-gatherers? They sampled between 3,000 and 5,000 plants and still consumed animal foods as well.
“Healthy Plant Based Diet” is an Oxymoron
A “healthy plant based diet” on only 150 food plants at best and less than 20 at worst? That simply doesn’t add up to anything remotely resembling health according to my logic. Not enough variety by a longshot.
Compare this to a person who consumes foods from wild and/or pastured animals. The plant variety these animals sample throughout the year is enormous, which the person eating the meat benefits from indirectly.
Another salient point is that much of the fresh produce plant based fans are eating is hydroponically grown. Hydroponics is much lower in nutrients than plants grown in rich organic soil.
This is why organizations like the Cornucopia Institute are so against the hydroponic invasion of the USDA Organic label over the past decade.
It seems that the term “healthy plant based diet” is nothing more than a semantic marketing ploy contrived for television personalities beholden to their corporate advertising sponsors to pawn off to an unsuspecting public.
Next time you hear the term “plant based diet” and “healthy” used in the same sentence, feel free to roll your eyes and press “off” on the TV remote.
References
Seeds of Change, Kenny Ausubel
Vegetarian Journal
Cornucopia Institute: Why Organics Needs to Be Rooted in Healthy Soil (NOT hydroponics)
More Information
Vegetarians Suffer from More Cavities than Meat Eaters
All Plant-based Diets a High Risk for Fractures
I find it hard to believe how critical you are of a plant based diet. I agree that we all have to get of the processed foods, but a whole food vegetarian diet is a great option for many people. The Loma Linda study followed the diets of vegetarian people for over 30 years and found them to be healthier than any other group in this country, with an average of 7 years extended life. I’m not a vegetarian myself, and I try to eat a whole food diet, enjoy wjat you share but really have a difficult time with your tone of disdain of anything vegetarian!
Hi Ana, it’s true that eating a whole foods vegetarian diet will improve many people’s health considering that most eat such a terrible processed foods diet. Dr. Weston Price noted that the traditional vegetarian cultures he studies were healthier even than Americans back in the 1930’s! That says a lot. However, Dr. Price also found that the omnivore cultures were so far healthier than even the indigenous vegetarian cultures that I feel so passionate and compelled to dispel the myth that vegetarianism can achieve one’s best health when this just is not the case based on Dr. Price’s anthropological studies.
Sarah, It’s been interesting reading down this thread. There is a strong bias against “plant based” diet and the China Study findings. My question is: Do you know that Weston Price has his critics as well? Look in to it and perhaps allow to have your own assumptions challenged. Cheers.
I totally agree. Is this lady even a doctor? I just heard about “The China Study ” & watched several docs, most recently, “Eating you Alive 2018.” There have been over 7000 studies done on “Whole Food Plant Based Diets”.. Proven to be the best diet to prevent & reverse many diseases caused by eating an unhealthy diet. Many Vegans & Vegetarians are still eating junk foods. I found this piece to be just an opinion, not fact or scientific based. Any type of meat is a carcinogen and may lead to cancer. This person should stop spreading her false information for her own agenda, whatever that may be. I’ve been omnivore for 42 years, and I am literally sick, tired, & depressed. I’ve started WFPB 3 weeks ago, & I am starting to feel great. There are too many fruits, vegetables, legumes, & whole grains to list, but I have a variety to choose from. I’m curious as to what her insides look like… This article makes no sense in several areas. So yeah, you indirectly eat what the cow eats… Mostly grass & grains in today’s society, & that benefits you how? Even if that statement was backed with evidence, don’t you think the long-term effects of eating animal protein are much worse? I’m not against people eating meat, but the amount of meat is the issue.
I watched a documentary called “Vegucated” on Amazon Prime. It’s so sad that people are unaware or even worse, just don’t care about, the inhumane practices of meat production. We’ve been lied to and the lies keep continuing. Just because they say it’s humane, doesn’t make it so, because the guidelines for labeling free range & humane are ridiculous…it is still not really free range or humane.
The government cares more about making a quick buck, than the health of its people.
Instead of giving subsidies to the meat & dairy manufacturers, we give it to the fruit & vegetable farmers…. If you want to eat meat, you are still free to do so… I’ll just be more expensive… Like our organic fruits & veggies are now….
Seriously? The China Study? https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-china-study-more-flaws-exposed-in-the-vegan-bible
When folks on the typical SAD diet try vegetarianism, they feel good. This is because they are actually detoxing from much of the garbage they have been eating. So, it seems to make sense. But long term, only a small percentage of the population has the makeup to exist on a vegetarian diet, and they have a better chance if they opt for ovo-lacto vegetarianism. Others find they slide into a subpar existence, which they may not even be aware of. I love being on a WAP diet, and sing its praises to all I meet.
wonderful points! I’ve never thought about the whole plant variety point yet it makes such perfect sense…and now back to my grass fed chuck roast! mmmmmm, how could anyone ever be a vegan???? Home made strawberry ice cream from raw milk/cream and pastured egg yokes for dessert! I think I will!
Hey, there’s nothing wrong with eating your vegetables…if you serve them with butter, alongside a steak!
That’s not what a “healthy Plant based diet” means. Of course there’s nothing wrong with eating veggies cooked in butter.
It’s not the quantity of meat/veges, but most importantly, the quality. Researchers will never be able to tell you how much this or that you should eat. You have to listen to your body and learn what it needs based on the season, your activity, genetics, age, and probably a hundred other variables. Most people are like I was less than a year ago, I never heard of grass fed meat and had no idea what that meant. I thought organic veges were the weak, limp, dirty, expensive ones in the corner of the produce dept. that no one bought. Learning what quality food really is, how much flavor it has, I eat foods I never liked before and want to eat it all! My diet is quality based.
Well, I don’t totally agree as the most danger probably lays in people confusing what a healthy plant-based diet means. Most people don’t stop to think of what real nutrition is as you can tell by the rising disease rates. A vegetarian diet is not healthy if it only includes a bag of chips, white bread, and soda. But thats the average diet of many Americans.
Your argument doesn’t make any sense. Variety comes in herbs and spices too.
Sarah, I love your blog but confused by this post. Most Americans eat WAY too much meat so incorporating more fruits and vegetables are not a bad thing. Even if our ancestors ate meat they did not eat nearly as much as we do now due to lack of availability.
I just read the China Study, where a low animal protein diet is encouraged and not sure how you dispute Dr Campbell’s 30+ years of research and studies. Its all about what works for each person right?
Chris Masterjohn and Denise Minger have found plenty to criticize in the China study. Dr. Mercola also agrees with masterjohn’s critique, as well as many others. Just google it and you’ll see.
Hi Jaime, sorry to burst your bubble on this, but the China Study is b-u-n-k.
http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2011/01/08/chris-masterjohn-criticism-of-the-china-study.aspx
Check out How Not To Die by Dr. Greger. His grandma was 65 and sent home by doctors advising her to prepare for death from heart disease. She had already had multiple surgeries and that route was no longer an option. She decided to go to Santa Barbara, CA for treatment, they put her on a plant based diet plan, needless to say her heart improved. She ended up living to be 96 and at 65 she was advised by Cardiologists to plan for the end. I’d put money on it that Sarah, profits from the meat industry in some form. Sad.
That’s a neat story. I don’t base my dietary decisions on an n=1 case though. She might have been eating fast food all the time before her changes. Certainly, eating more veggies would have been a huge improvement. I base decisions on anthropological evidence of thousands of people from 14 cultures around the world as carefully documented in Nutrition and Physical Degeneration. Guess what? Not a single one was vegan. In fact, Dr. Price couldn’t even find a healthy vegan population that had sustained itself for multiple generations. One of the keys of health is fertility, which vegans lose in spades very quickly.
Thank you!!! there’s so much info out there and i see all these healthy ‘crunchy’ blogs that i love that suggest vegetarianism.. and it can be very convincing! but i’m a firm follower of the WAPF and there’s a lot more research there to show plant based diets are not in our best interest https://www.westonaprice.org/abcs-of-nutrition/267-myths-of-vegetarianism.html is a great resource!
Sarah,
I see your point, but the same could be said of animal products, right? Imagine the variety that a hunter-gatherer might have had. Most of us usually consume a handful of animals, most of them modern breeds…
Quite right, Mara which is why it is important to seek grassbased meats from old fashioned breeds if at all possible. However, the variety eaten was not that large for say the American Indian which relied very heavily on the buffalo for example. Also, animal foods concentrate the nutrients unlike plant based foods and contain nutrition not found at all in plants, but that is another blog entirely. 🙂
Huh, I thought plant-based diet just meant to eat more fruits and vegetables, which of course is good for everyone! Didn’t realize they were eschewing meat entirely.
Wendy, they are not good for everyone. As a gaps patient and possibly candida sufferer, fruit is off limits for me now -as well as very fibrous veggies.
I thought that, too, Wendy.