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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
Agreed. My personal story has borne out the facts that switching to such a diet definitely can lead to a dramatic change in blood work….only time will tell if my CVD will be halted or regress….
Given that a plant based diet contains ZERO vitamin K2 (no, I’m not talking about K1 and no, humans don’t convert it like herbivores do). This is the only nutrient shown to reverse cardiovascular disease. Seems you are putting far too much hope in this overhyped diet which no culture in history ever followed. I certainly hope you are at least supplementing with K2. Most vegans don’t unfortunately. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/which-vitamin-k2-supplement-is-best-mk-4-or-mk-7/
Just to toss in my experience and information; MI in November based on years of low carb eating. Chose the best foods I could and ate lots of veggies as well as meat and so-called “healthy” fats. I have lesions in two locations in coronary arteries. I switched to a plant-based diet and no longer eat any oil, dairy, or meat. Blood work changed dramatically: cholesterol now 89 from 154, LDL 38 from 90…on and on. I get why folks promote the “Whole 30” or other diets. As a person who doctors said was eating a “great” diet prior to my MI, I have a very different perspective. I check my blood work consistently, watching for the so-called “deficiencies” folks talk about. None have emerged since my change in November. My .02.
OMG. You actually think that a cholesterol level of 89 is good??? My goodness you are incredibly misinformed. Did you know that such low cholesterol is a HUGE cancer risk? No oil in the diet is downright foolish. There is such a thing as healthy fats. Seems that your thinking is stuck in the 1970’s.
I say “no” to you and your theory. A plant based (vegan) diet has worked wonders for my weight loss, high blood pressure and cholesterol. You don’t mention Rich Roll or Dr. Joel Kahn, longtime vegan and supporters of a plant based diet. I went vegan not just for my health but also to stop cruelty to animals and the environmental issues created as a result of industrialized meat production. Do you support that as well?
Yes I am opposed to industrialized meat production which is why I purchase from local grassfed farms.
“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!” I read all the cited material, i didn’t see this exact information anywhere nor a proper study to support that 90% of the human population that has ever lived hasn’t eaten a grain of rice? really? That’s so wrong it’s completely discredited this article, I could care less about the plant based diet but to say that 90 percent of all humans whom have ever lived have never eaten rice wheat or corn the main staples of just about every civilized population….speechless…
The term Whole Foods plant based diet is not contrived as a selling point but to different from an unhealthy vegan diet. People choose to be vegan for a variety of reasons, one being animal advocated anc they are not concerned with eating healthy. Whole Foods plant based diet is eliminated the French fries, chips, sugary foods that many vegans consume this the need to rename it. I suggest you investigate Dr Greger, How Not to Die, Nutritionist Facts.org and see what you think about the science behind it.
Sean, when you evolve 4 stomach’s by all means go out and eat all the grass you want 🙂 Humans are carnivores and we get the same diseases cats and dogs get when they eat carbs – obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes.
I appreciate your comment, but humans are OMNIVORES, not carnivores! 🙂
Thank you so much for this article. I have been struggling with the idea of being a raw vegan and so to reagain my health and many YouTube folks claim it is,how they recovered theirs. Many look so healthy. Markus Rothkranz is one who has highly promoted this. I don’t have the money he has to spend on all the foods he is able to consume, but others have their sites, sharing recipes and it looks like such a healthy way to eat and live. I get so confused. However, I always have to come back to organic raised animal products to sustain myself. Still a bit confused, but thank you for this insight. I have candida and gut issues that they claim raw food diet will heal. That is where the confusion comes in and the temptation to believe them.
Eating a plant based diet can be very detoxifying, but it is not sufficiently nourishing. Hence, you can look and feel good for a short period of time eating this way, but over the long haul serious nutritional deficiencies inevitably develop. This is why over 80% of vegetarians and vegans return to eating meat within just a few years. https://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/most-vegetarians-return-to-eating-meat/
eet mor chickin….great article sarah. why can’t people see that this is just another FAD? i’m all for eating healthy, but honestly…eet mor brockalee.
If there is no ‘complete’ protein occurring in the plant world, and combining amino acids from different plants is likewise insufficient to sustain health, please explain how those grass fed cows that you feed your children have such complete protein. Doesn’t make any sense.
It’s called “research”. Animal proteins are complete in that they contain ALL the essential amino acids (building blocks of protein) necessary to maintain optimal human health. There isn’t a single plant protein that is complete from a human health perspective.
I will say that it would be fantastic to have more diversity when it comes to plant foods however, It doesn’t make sense to say plant based diets cant support health. Meats have fat, protein, and hardly any nutritional value. But plants have far more nutrients in them. Diversity is important for many reasons but mainly it’s important to get adequate nutrition. Plants provide far more diverse nutrients than animal products ever could. Most animal products come from animals with A LESS DIVERSE DIET THAN YOURS based from grain, soy, and grass, So to say plant based diets cant maintain health due to diversity and one should eat animal products, does not make a lick of sense nutritionally.
Did you even read the article?