Plant-based diet
A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of plant-based foods.[1][2] Plant-based diets encompass a wide range of dietary patterns that contain low amounts of animal products and high amounts of fiber-rich[3] plant products such as vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds.[4][5][6] They do not need to be vegan or vegetarian,[7][8] but are defined in terms of low frequency of animal food consumption.[4][7]
This article is about designed diets which consist mostly or entirely of plant-based foods. For the natural behavior of feeding from plants (phytophagy), see Herbivore. "WFPB" redirects here. For the radio station, see WUMB-FM § Repeater stations.Terminology
Origin of the term "plant-based diet" is attributed to Cornell University nutritional biochemist T. Colin Campbell who presented his diet research at the US National Institutes of Health in 1980.[9] Campbell's research about a plant-based diet extended from The China Project, a decade-long study of dietary practices in rural China, giving evidence that a diet low in animal protein and fat, and high in plant foods, could reduce the incidence of several diseases.[10] In 2005, Campbell and his son published The China Study, a best-selling book emphasizing the potential health benefits of a plant-based diet.[9][11] Campbell also used the plant-based concept to educate consumers about how eating meat had significant environmental consequences.[9]
Some authors draw a distinction between diets that are "plant-based" or "plant-only".[12] A plant-based diet may be defined as consuming plant-sourced foods that are minimally processed.[9][11]
A review analyzing the use of the term plant-based diet in medical literature found that 50% of clinical trials use the term interchangeably with vegan, meaning that the interventional diet did not include foods of animal origin. 30% of studies included dairy products and 20% meat.[13]
In 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) stated that "plant-based diets constitute a diverse range of dietary patterns that emphasize foods derived from plant sources coupled with lower consumption or exclusion of animal products. Vegetarian diets form a subset of plant-based diets, which may exclude the consumption of some or all forms of animal foods."[14] The WHO lists flexitarian, lacto-vegetarian, lacto-ovo vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, pescatarian and vegan diets as plant-based.[14]
A 2023 review paper defined plant-based as "a dietary pattern in which foods of animal origin are totally or mostly excluded".[1]
Motivation and prevalence
As of the early 21st century, some 4 billion people are estimated to live primarily on a plant-based diet, some by choice and some because of limits caused by shortages of crops, fresh water, and energy resources.[15] Main motivations to follow a plant-based diet appear to be health aspirations, taste, animal welfare, environmental concern, and weight loss.[16] In the U.S.A., people take individual action on climate change through their diet. Twenty-six per cent of those who eat a plant-based diet because they are "alarmed" about global warming — defined by the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication as those who are "convinced global warming is happening, human-caused, an urgent threat" — and twenty-seven per cent eat a plant-based diet because they are "concerned" — they believe global warming is a real and serious threat and that humans are causing it, but they think climate impacts remain far enough in the future that they are a lower priority issue.[17]
Politics
A reduction in meat consumption and a shift to more plant-based diets is needed to reach climate targets, addressing public health problems, and protecting animal welfare. Research has been done on how to best promote such a change in consumer behaviour.[82]
Some public health organisations advocate a plant-based diet due to its low ecological footprint. These include the Swedish Food Agency in its dietary guideline[83] and a group of Lancet researchers who propose a planetary health diet.[84] Vegan climate activist Greta Thunberg also called for more plant-based food production and consumption worldwide.[85] A 2022 report by the Stockholm Environment Institute and the Council On Energy, Environment and Water included protecting animal welfare and adopting plant based diets on a list of recommendations to help mitigate the ecological and social crises bringing the world to a "boiling point".[86]
Denmark and South Korea announced plant-based action plans in 2023.[87]