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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
@Lisa,
“A plant-based whole foods diet is not a publicity name to avoid using vegetarian or vegan.”
This is exactly why I didn’t take this article serious! It is not a publicity name, it’s just a different diet. Vegans can eat lots of sugar,… vegetarians can eat lots of cheese,…: not so healty I guess!
I often see articles bashing either plant-based diets AND meat based, which causes a lot of confusion and makes people angry at each other. I’d like to see the argument supporting that there is more variety in a diet with meat and dairy than there is in a whole foods plant-based diet. Dietary nutrition is a complex subject and there is no simple solution for what the ideal diet looks like. We all should find what works best for our own body. I know very healthy vegan and meat eating people, both with no deficiencies in their diets. Lets think critically before telling others what is right and wrong.
Yea lean and musculiar and sick.
Plant based simply means mostly plants. It doesn’t have to exclude meat and dairy. I follow a whole food plant based diet. It means I minimise refined foods such as white flour, oils and sugar and eat very little by way of animal products. I eat about 90 to 95% whole food plant based foods including veg, fruit, nuts and seeds. If you look around the world, the healthiest societies eat mostly whole plant foods.
A plant-based whole foods diet is not a publicity name to avoid using vegetarian or vegan. You can eat Kraft mac and cheese all day and call yourself vegetarian but you’re not eating right. I’m sorry but there are hundreds of studies that prove that an animal based diet causes cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, and more.
I have to agree with Laura on some points. I don’t think there is a one-size-fits-all eating plan that is healthy for every single person. Some people do very well on a plant-based diet, others do well with meat and plants. Because of my family history of Dementia, I’ve been doing a ton of research on the kinds of things that are linked to Dementia and Alzheimer’s Disease. I personally believe that the best approach for ME is a lot of vegetables (cooked and raw), some fruits, and some meat (grass-fed and organic). I choose to stay away from grains, as most are highly processed and there is a strong correlation between a high grain, high sugar, low-fat diet… and Alzheimer’s/Dementia. It is my opinion (after doing gobs of research, that the closer we stick to minimally processed REAL foods (vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, accented with meat… the better our health will be. All those overly processed food-like substances are what’s making many of us sick. Just my two cents on all that… but back to my original point… everyone’s bodies are different and each person has to find what helps them thrive and what hurts them. Wish everyone would quit with the one-size-fits-all approach to health and nutrition. It’s just NOT that simple.
I don’t understand how a diet of meats has variety if you say plants have no variety. After all, where do meat (animals) get their “nutrition”? They eat plants. All day long, 365 days a year. [unless they are slaughtered before they can get to that number]
I understand meat contains B-vitamins, but so do asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes, onions, lettuce, leaks, cauliflower, green bean, bananas, figs, dates, squash, tomatoes, avocados, peas, lentils, black beans, kidney beans, almonds, cashews, and sunflower seeds.
I understand meat has folate, but so do asparagus, broccoli, sweet potatoes, onions, lettuce, cauliflower, lentils, spinach, black beans, turnip greens and so many more.
Look at all those repeats! What variety in fewer than 20 plants 🙂
I never eat plants except the lettuce in a big mac and now Im a healthy 425 lbs
I just want to say that, while I understand where you are coming from- I have tried a plant based diet, and failed on a few levels. I also appreciate hearing another view than the one that is typically heard when looking into vegan/vegetarian/plant based diets. I am also a mom- raising a toddler and if I whole heartedly believed we could get by with NO animal based products, we would. But I feed her everything and will educate her on Big-ag and the meat industry and suffering of animals and problems that it contributes to the environment and let her decide. Right now she eats some chicken and fish and I try to sneak in a few healthy meat substitutes. I just think, as far as consuming meat, less is more.
So we supp. about 20% of our diet with meat. I tend to eat more plant based. As I said, I’m a failed vegan. I’m VERY aware of the lack of compassion that goes into raising animal for food, and I eat it like once every six months.
But some people I think Thrive on a vegan diet take Bredan Frasier, as well as others like the guy that started the engine two diet. I think some people really do thrive on this diet, so saying it isn’t sustainable for everyone simply isn’t true. I think it’s up for people to decide what is healthy for themselves, as we are all individuals, and have different constitutions. But also that we should be aware that our food choices do impact the environment. Also, the people that I see in the grocery store who fill their carts with processed, meat and animal based foods, and happen to be obese could probably benefit from a more plant based diet. The UN actually advises this change in eating habits.
The largest mammals on earth eat a plant based diet….The premise that human mammals can’t subsist on a variety of plant proteins, plant carbs, the hundreds of pulses, fruits, veggies, grains, herbs, nuts, seeds, starches, is a false one.
The power horses get is from PLANT protein from greens and grains, although wild horses do not eat manufactured grains. The very animals eaten by humans get their nutrients from PLANTS. Growing high fiber, high moisture, high protein alfalfa, soy, wheat, corn, to produce no fiber, acidic, fat laden, cholesterol ridden flesh and dairy, is ABSURD, grotesquely wasteful, and heinously inhumane… If the words strongest athletes can eat a vegan diet and thrive, gaping holes in the premise a vegan diet isn’t healthy. Ask Carl Lewis, Frank Medrano, Matt Gonzales, Martina Navarotilova, Jim Morris, Ken Williams, Partick Baboumian, Scott Jurek, Tim Van Ornden, Ray Cheek, Rich Roll, how they manage to build massive power, stamina, strength, resilience and fast recovery times on their VEGAN diets.
Why are my guinea pigs fat which eat only plants and my cats lean and strong and muscular and they eat only meat (I only feed them meat based cat food, not grain based). Also, cows are fat and they graze all day long. Sorry, I would rather be lean and muscular and eat meat.
We are not carnivores. Cats have fangs and claws. Read a book called “The China Study”. It is the largest study ever done on diet and health. I respectfully disagree with everything in your article. I think it is 100% uninformed opinion.
I never said humans were carnivores .. we are OMNIVORES. The book The China Study is loaded with flaws: https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/the-china-study-more-flaws-exposed-in-the-vegan-bible/
To which the reply, they turned to veganism and their performances fell. They didn’t start vegan without supplements especially protein. Please point at an athlete who was vegan their whole life with supplements. Not to say that a plant-based diet isn’t good just that its only based on plants not plants only. There is already words for plants only- vegetarian…. And to healthy home economist- I have absolutely problem with Big Ag or so-called Franken Food- all plants and animals are Franken- they were breed. Most people’s diets always going rather limited in species that you eat- add meat that is only three more species chicken, cow and pig. Number of species does not represent dietary variety- actual measurement of what they contain is what counts.
More than half if not all of those athletes you mentioned are on performance enhancing drugs. The power lifter you mention Boumanian was not always plant based and built his strength on drugs and meat first. For someone to believe that Frank Medrano is not taking any leaning agents or HGH has no clue. I am and have been plant based for years and do not look like Medrano or have the strength or endurance of any of these athletes you mention and I am in a Special Operations position with the military so I am in excellent condition.
You didn’t even provide us with scientific evidence, what we should do instead of be vegetarian or vegan, nor did you say anything that is useful to us. All you did was give your opinion which to me, seems critical, close-minded and a way to make yourself feel better about eating an animals’ corpse that most likely was in pain and suffered while he or her was alive until it was slaughtered, chopped up and put on your dinner plate. Yes, humans evolved eating meat but we also evolved eating fruits, seeds, nuts and a large variety of vegetables. Back then, meat was very hard to get. Imagine a puny human going after a buffalo with a spear? So meat was not plentiful like it is now. Grains should not be our main source of our daily diet either, so you were right about something. We should be eating more veggies!! Not more meat. What good does that do? It just causes more animal suffering so you can go down the street and buy a hamburger.
We should be concerned with eat a larger variety of vegetables. There are plenty of them in the world to be tried. We should set more vegetables and cutting back on our meat consumption.