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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
Replacing red and processed meat with nuts, beans, fish, or poultry seems to lower the risk of heart disease and diabetes. (14,16) And this diet strategy may help with weight control, too, according to a recent study from the Harvard School of Public Health. Researchers tracked the diet and lifestyle habits of 120,000 men and women for up to 20 years, looking at how small changes contributed to weight gain over time. (9) People who ate more red and processed meat over the course of the study gained more weight-about a pound extra every four years. People who ate more nuts over the course of the study gained less weight-about a half pound less every four years.. This was a study from Harvard, maybe it should have been included in this article that only bashes a plant based lifestyle. Also Apes, rhinos, and many other animals live on a plant based diet and have not died out, in fact they flourish.
As mentioned in the article, you can lose weight on a plant based diet. However, vegan skinny doesn’t mean healthy. And, the red meat and processed meats they used in the study were conventionally raised meats which no one disagrees are unhealthy. HOWEVER, grassbased red meat and traditionally cured meats are FINE. AND …. you mentioned fish and chicken were included in the Harvard study… sorry, but these aren’t allowed on a plant based diet. I appreciate your comment, but your observation in no way supports plant based eating!
I hve definitely taken the red pill, lol! I have now encountered carnivores, and they are saying that they feel and look their best on an all meat diet. Ultimately, you are right. Each of us is bioindividual, and frankly, I am getting tired of people telling me how to eat, like I am committing some kind of moral crime for eating meat. I am supposedly supposed to be vegetarian because of my blood type. Ummmm sorry! I feel best on a higher meat and fat content. I was briefly vegetarian, and it didnt suit me. Thank you for calling this crap out!
Ok Sarah I have a lot to ask and say. bear with me. I promise I’m not arguing or being confrontational I am just really really confused.
I have always thought we as humans are omnivores. I still do not doubt that. Then I watched this movie called What The Health and this doctor was talking about us being more frugivores then anything. lol These movies like Fat Sick & Nearly Dead and What the Health really seem convincing and make me feel like crap bcz i enjoy eating meat. But then I realize that we are omnivores and we are SUPPOSED to eat meat and i get over it. I could understand if they said a MOSTLY PLANT DIET with some meat but they go to extreme. so here are my questions
1. is eating meat the problem or is it the stuff they spray on the meat and the stuff they put in the meat (salt water) that is actually the problem?
2. In What The Health (movie) they say that the biggest animals are herbivores and so this prove we can survive on vegetables alone. arent their systems made to ONLY digest vegetables and isnt grass everywhere? Are they forgetting that tigers can weigh up to 800 pds and lions weigh 550 pds? thats not small either and they only eat meat.
3. in that movie they said the beef is unhealthy bcz they grass their eating in non nutritional and has bad stuff sprayed in it. even the organic meat eats the same thing. How come nobody talks about the pesticides sprayed on plants? and if the ground is not nutritious then wouldn’t that go the same way for plants too?
4. what about dairy they say we cow milk is only for cows and is terrible for us. I have a 2yr old daughter and i certainly dont want to be giving her something that is terrible for her. she is just starting off her life and I want to give her the best chance to live forever as i can. I thought native americans drank bison milk too. this is such a confusing subject but a really important one i want to get right.
5. How come these plant based movies dont push exercise as much as they push vegetables? I almost never see them talking about exercise. if you eat only vegetables and cut tons of calories your just going t o shrink. You wont get abs or ripped without training no matter what you eat.
6. if i hunt my meat (deer mostly) is that better to eat then buying it in a store?
7. they say fish is terrible bcz of all the chemicals they put in the water and the ocean pollution. so then its not the fish that the problem is it? its the chemicals being put in the water. That means that we are still drinking those chemicals and PLANTS are being grown with that same water. So what makes plants so much better.
I’mm dont for now. As you can se I am just very very confused. help if you can. Thanks for your time
I have a very thorough rebuttal of “What the Health” coming out very soon! It’s a very black and white take on meat and dairy unfortunately. Healthy, sustainable grassfed meat and dairy is NOT what was covered. Only conventional crap which we all agree, vegan or not, is unhealthy!
My 3 children (oldest is 19) are free of all allergies etc, never had any antibiotics or other drugs and were raised on raw grassfed milk and plenty of pastured, sustainable meats.
First of all, my mother is from India, but my father was born and raised in the USA.
I just called my mom to ask if her family ate bugs when she was growing up. That made her laugh, but the answer is no. Lots of rice, grains, fruits, and vegetables. Everything cooked with lots of spices. Same with my childhood. I always found the food served at my friend’s houses incredibly boring and bland. (Of course, I only tried items that were not animal based.)
I didn’t suggest that your mother “knew” she was eating bugs. If she was raised in India particularly early in the last century, she ate bugs even if she didn’t know it. They are everywhere in the food supply there. Read the sourced study I cited “… many small insects, their feces, eggs, larvae and/or residue, are left on the plant foods and flour these people consume, due to non-use of pesticides and inefficient cleaning methods.” Also, I’m surmising from your comment that your father was not actually raised vegan … but perhaps became vegan later?
Again, I’m glad you are happy with your choices, but you are a very rare exception. Most people fall on extremely ill health on such a extreme, nutrient poor diet and return to an omnivore diet such as humans were designed (check out those 4 canine teeth in the mirror!)
If you read my original post you will see that my mother was raised vegan, and her mother vegan.. My siblings and I all had children and three of us have grandchildren. There are no fertility issues.
Oh, I missed that. Thanks for reiterating.
I also missed skimming your comment (I get dozens per day!) that your parents grew up in India. It is well known and documented that vegan Hindus in India eat lots of bugs with their food. Insects are an excellent, perfectly balanced protein source and loaded with A/D/K2 as well as B12. Not so vegan after all! These same vegans upon migrating to England where the food is cleaner without any insect residues develop severe nutritional deficiencies within a few years. Not sure where you’re living now, but if it is in a Western country, I would reconsider your diet!
Source: HL Abrams. Vegetarianism: An Anthropological/Nutritional Evaluation, J Appl Nutr, 1980, 32:2:53-87
I am nearly 60-years-old and one of four children in my family. We were raised vegan from birth, which was considered incredibly radical in the 1950’s. My father is a doctor, now 90 years old, and my mother a nurse and was always interested in nutrition. She grew up in India and was also raised vegan. She is now 88. Both my parents still eat a vegan diet and are active with swimming, walking. My father still plays tennis.
We ate a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, beans, and grains. We also are lots of natto which provided us with vitamin K and K2, although as children we didn’t know that.
We had regular check-ups with my father. We had the typical childhood immunizations.
We were active children, and growing up in Hawaii spent most of our childhood in the ocean it seemed. At about age 10, I became involved in team sports, mostly volleyball. Later I became interested in running and started entering races in the Pacific Northwest where I attended college. Eventually I ran marathons and triathlons. My older sister is an avid skier and spent many years on the ski patrol and as a ski instructor in Oregon. My two other siblings still surf, swim, and paddle as adults in their 50’s and 60’s. None of us has ever suffered from obesity, diabetes, cancer, heart disease, osteoporosis, infertility, or autoimmune disease. I know we are much healthier than any of our peers.
My mother did a good of explaining her beliefs regarding diet and health, and when we went out on our own, let us know that our dietary choices were our own. My two older siblings experimented with meat during college, but eventually went back to the vegan diet we were raised on. My younger brother and I always remained on a vegan diet.
My siblings and I all have grown children who are either vegetarian and/or vegan with one exception. That nephew of mine eats mostly plants, but also some meat, although much less than the typical US diet. Several of my nieces and nephews experimented with eating meat in their late teens or early 20’s but eventually returned to the diet they were raised on. All are active and healthy
We feel so blessed to have been raised on a diet of plants. It was the greatest gift my parents provided us and continues to influence the health of our children and grandchildren.
You cannot begin to tell me this is not a healthy sustainable diet. We are proof that it is.
I’m glad you are well and healthy etc. The truth is that the vast majority of vegans fail to ever attain more than just a few years of successful “veganing” without a dramatic negative turn in health. And no, your family is “proof” of nothing. No society ever ate vegan … why? Because they would have died out within a few generations of rampant infertility. Your mother was not vegan when she was growing up .. she only chose this later.
You are actually only describing a single generation (yours) that was vegan from birth. You didn’t mention that you have any grandchildren even though your children grown … are your children having fertility difficulties?
your gut microflora make K2 from K1. No study has ever shown a benefit of K2 in people with enough K1. Would you not agree that most people eat TOO MUCH animal protein? Making an effort to eat more plants seems like a positive message to people, especially children.
Ummmm, sorry. Nice try. Grazing animals make K2 from K1, BUT HUMANS DO NOT and IF their microflora make it (only if their gut is in good shape, MOST people’s gut flora IS A TOTAL MESS) AFTER ABSORPTION HAS ALREADY TAKEN PLACE. AND, the amount made by the microflora is not sufficient to support vibrant human health anyway.
Given that SOME ancestral societies that were healthy and vibrant ate hardly any plant foods at all, no, I’m not going to push this PC agenda “to eat more plants” when it isn’t right for some people genetically speaking. Eat the plant and animal foods mix that works best for you. There is a WIDE variety of approaches to Traditional Eating and ALL are fine. One thing that DID NOT exist in Traditional Eating, however, is PLANT BASED DIET. ALL traditional diets included animal foods and ALL the special foods that were considered necessary for hormonal health and optimal fertility were ANIMAL FOODS. “Eat more plants, it’s good for you” is a modern invention to advance a politically correct agenda masterminded by greedy corporations that have a lot of $$ to make by manufacturing meat, egg, cheese and dairy replacements for people who are misguided into thinking animal foods are somehow “bad” when in fact, they are NECESSARY for health.
Again, I suggest you take the red pill.
Sarah-Very interesting info. I desire to become more informed about the dangers of a “plant based diet’. Any info. would be greatly appreciated. Thank you,Al
This book is excellent as well. http://amzn.to/2wFrm7P
Sarah-I’m looking for a book or an article that will give an overview and detailed summary of the dangers of a “plant based diet”.
Thank you, Al
This is the best resource I’ve found that debunks plant based eating a la The China Study and the docu Forks Over Knives. It is very detailed! https://deniseminger.com/the-china-study/
Digging in is akin to taking the red pill. Do it 🙂
I disagree with you. Please explain to me what nutrition deficiency one can be facing on this diet (besides b12 of course). Also explain to me how this diet can lead to infertility. I follow a plant based diet and get a perfect amount of protein, carbs, fiber, fats, and all vitamins, amino acids, and minerals. I only started on this diet so I can’t report any personal anectodes regarding long term health . The only thing that I’ve noticed so far is an amazing waste line, more energy, faster metabolism, clearer skin, shinier hair, and a happier attitude. Eating meat and dairy frequently would make me feel bloated, grumpy, and always exhausted. Also gave me acne and weaker hair. I ate pasteurized organic hormone free meat and dairy only along with a healthy diet. There is plenty of long term research and anectodes out there on how it has done all good no harm if done correctly. A lady I know is 50 years old and looks younger than someone who is 30 (she does not have good genes for aging). She has been on this diet for over 20 years and was able to fix her hormone disbalances, has optimal health, and has the most beautiful skin I have ever seen on ANYONE. Your argument that if an average Joe can’t do it that it’s not safe enough is not a good arguement. If you want to optimize your health you should do research and be able to do it right. It may APPEAR hard because everyone is so used to Standard American Diet of donuts and Coke everyday, but adapting new habits is not rocket science. Now, I know many people who follow a plant based diet choose to completely eliminate animal products. This is not the case for everyone hence why it’s a plant BASED diet. I choose to eat organic cheese, meat, and fish 3-4 times a month. Consuming these everyday would be hard on my digestive system therefore slowing my body’s natural ability to heal itself from other issues.
Sure, I’m happy to explain. First, there is no source of plant protein on this earth that is complete in all the necessary amino acids to support human health. Zero. Every single bite of animal based protein is complete, by the way. So … to get sufficient quality protein to sustain health on a plant based diet, YOU MUST be PERFECT 24/7/365 at combining various plant proteins to achieve the amino acid ratios you need. That is VERY difficult to do and the vast majority of plant based eaters are not able to accomplish this even if they know what they are doing. This is likely due to digestive and genetic differences between people. Hence, eating plant based diet is Russian Roulette with your health. Your health is likely to disintegrate rapidly after a few years, usually with sudden and very severe dental issues one of the first signs.
Secondly, plant based eating results in infertility over time. This is why ancestral societies put value on various “sacred foods” for reproducing couples. These special foods were ALL animal based in every single indigenous society across the globe although the source varied depending on the climate (pastured raw butter, fish eggs, seafood (whole animal like clams, shrimp, mussels), organ meats, eggs). These foods are rich in fat soluble vitamins A, D and especially K2 (which NO plant foods contain except natto which is so nasty tasting most won’t eat it and I’ve never talked to a vegan who actually supplements with it). No plant foods contain true Vitamin A and D either (I have articles on this on the blog .. no mushrooms aren’t an adequate source of vitamin D and beta carotene is not vitamin A .. the body must convert beta carotene to true vitamin A and for MOST people, the conversion does not occur at all or very inefficiently. Hence once again, why most vegans deteriorate badly after awhile eating only plant foods). These 3 fat soluble vitamins synergistically create fertility by supporting optimum hormonal balance. If one of the three is missing or deficient in the diet, the other 2 don’t work as well without it.
Hence, eating a plant based diet is extremely deficient in many key nutrients, not just B12. So, even if you supplement with true Vitamin A, Vitamin D, Vitamin K2, and Vitamin B12, your health will still tank after awhile from the lack of quality protein and development of severe deficiency in one or more important amino acids. Hope that helps!