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Plant based diets - fact from fiction
So I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions about plant based diets and I wanted to clear some of them up for those who might be interested.
First off, what even is a plant based diet?
According to wikipedia, “A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits, and with few or no animal products.”
Pretty simple, you eat mostly or entirely plants. Now here is where I think the confusion begins, are foods “plant based” even if they have been refined and processed to hell? I would argue no. I think a big reason this misconception began is that veganism is often conflated with plant based diets. Veganism is defined on wikipedia as “the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals”
From these definitions, the difference is clear: plant based diets are centered on eating mainly plants for health reasons, whereas veganism avoids animal products for ethical reasons. So an oreo, which contains no animal products is vegan but arguably not plant based (the processing involved removes it so far from being anything close to a plant). To avoid confusion the term whole food plant based (WFPB) can be used. This refers to eating unprocessed plant foods, essentially fresh produce.
For an athlete I think it’s obvious they would choose a WFPB diet as opposed to one that is merely vegan. Potato chips, fake sausage, and almond milk ice cream - while vegan - are certainly not WFPB. The rest of this writeup assumes that the person of interest is eating primarily a WFPB diet which or may not be vegan/vegetarian depending on their ethical stances.
Now onto the science…
I’ll do this part as a sort of short FAQ, but feel free to ask any additional questions you may have and I’ll try to answer them.
Can you get enough protein?
This is one of, if not the, most asked questions about plant based diets. The answer is yes you definitely can. Here is a nice table displaying myths and reality from a literature review done by Young and Pellet in 1994 (old I know but it’s an excellent writeup). Copy and pasting the table was having some issue sos just sue the imgur link to see that part and the sci hub link for the full article.
https://sci-hub.scihubtw.tw/https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/59.5.1203S
I’m busy right now but I’ll try to find more recent research and add them in as I find them. The review was just a quick and easy solution.
Are plant based diets expensive?
The results of a 2019 study on socioeconomic factors in relation to plant vs animal protein concluded that: “Plant-based protein diets may be a cost-effective way to improve diet quality at all levels of income. Future research needs to evaluate the quality of plant-based protein in relation to amino acids and health.” Yes I will concede the least sentence of that conclusion, but note that it doesn't say “they don’t work” it says “we don’t know”.
And this is just my own anecdote but the poorest parts of the world live off plant based diet staples - beans, lentils, rice, quinoa etc etc. Look at hispanic food or Indian food for wonderful examples and cooking inspiration.
Is soy bad for you?
Soy is a staple in plant based diets as it is a complete protein and very cheap. There have been criticisms that the phytoestrogens in soy can lead to negative effects for males. A 2018 study concluded “Sex hormone network and thyroid gland perturbation seems to be unlikely, especially with low isoflavone intakes actually reported in vegetarian. Overall, the low content of bioactive compounds in second generation soy foods and moderate amounts in traditional soy preparations offer modest health benefits with very limited risk for potential adverse health effects” Also let’s keep in mind that dairy milk contains actual mammalian estrogen and not phytoestrogens as soy does. Also most cattle are fed soy based feed so unless you buy purely grass fed, you’re getting it anyways.
I could go on but since I do have actual school work to do I’ll conclude it at that. Sorry the faq/science section was so short but I figure my time is better spent responding to specific questions people have, so please ask any questions that come to mind and I’ll try to answer them with some research. Thanks for reading. Peace
So I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions about plant based diets and I wanted to clear some of them up for those who might be interested.
First off, what even is a plant based diet?
According to wikipedia, “A plant-based diet is a diet consisting mostly or entirely of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits, and with few or no animal products.”
Pretty simple, you eat mostly or entirely plants. Now here is where I think the confusion begins, are foods “plant based” even if they have been refined and processed to hell? I would argue no. I think a big reason this misconception began is that veganism is often conflated with plant based diets. Veganism is defined on wikipedia as “the practice of abstaining from the use of animal products, particularly in diet, and an associated philosophy that rejects the commodity status of animals”
From these definitions, the difference is clear: plant based diets are centered on eating mainly plants for health reasons, whereas veganism avoids animal products for ethical reasons. So an oreo, which contains no animal products is vegan but arguably not plant based (the processing involved removes it so far from being anything close to a plant). To avoid confusion the term whole food plant based (WFPB) can be used. This refers to eating unprocessed plant foods, essentially fresh produce.
For an athlete I think it’s obvious they would choose a WFPB diet as opposed to one that is merely vegan. Potato chips, fake sausage, and almond milk ice cream - while vegan - are certainly not WFPB. The rest of this writeup assumes that the person of interest is eating primarily a WFPB diet which or may not be vegan/vegetarian depending on their ethical stances.
Now onto the science…
I’ll do this part as a sort of short FAQ, but feel free to ask any additional questions you may have and I’ll try to answer them.
Can you get enough protein?
This is one of, if not the, most asked questions about plant based diets. The answer is yes you definitely can. Here is a nice table displaying myths and reality from a literature review done by Young and Pellet in 1994 (old I know but it’s an excellent writeup). Copy and pasting the table was having some issue sos just sue the imgur link to see that part and the sci hub link for the full article.
https://sci-hub.scihubtw.tw/https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/59.5.1203S
I’m busy right now but I’ll try to find more recent research and add them in as I find them. The review was just a quick and easy solution.
Are plant based diets expensive?
The results of a 2019 study on socioeconomic factors in relation to plant vs animal protein concluded that: “Plant-based protein diets may be a cost-effective way to improve diet quality at all levels of income. Future research needs to evaluate the quality of plant-based protein in relation to amino acids and health.” Yes I will concede the least sentence of that conclusion, but note that it doesn't say “they don’t work” it says “we don’t know”.
And this is just my own anecdote but the poorest parts of the world live off plant based diet staples - beans, lentils, rice, quinoa etc etc. Look at hispanic food or Indian food for wonderful examples and cooking inspiration.
Is soy bad for you?
Soy is a staple in plant based diets as it is a complete protein and very cheap. There have been criticisms that the phytoestrogens in soy can lead to negative effects for males. A 2018 study concluded “Sex hormone network and thyroid gland perturbation seems to be unlikely, especially with low isoflavone intakes actually reported in vegetarian. Overall, the low content of bioactive compounds in second generation soy foods and moderate amounts in traditional soy preparations offer modest health benefits with very limited risk for potential adverse health effects” Also let’s keep in mind that dairy milk contains actual mammalian estrogen and not phytoestrogens as soy does. Also most cattle are fed soy based feed so unless you buy purely grass fed, you’re getting it anyways.
I could go on but since I do have actual school work to do I’ll conclude it at that. Sorry the faq/science section was so short but I figure my time is better spent responding to specific questions people have, so please ask any questions that come to mind and I’ll try to answer them with some research. Thanks for reading. Peace
