Every few years, a new synonym for a "healthy diet" emerges in the collective unconscious. In the '90s, it was low-fat. In the 2000s, it was Mediterranean. Last decade, it was vegetarian and vegan, and now it’s "plant-based"—a catch-all phrase that people use to assure themselves that they’re being healthy as long as they follow a diet adhering to the term.
Every time this happens, the term becomes a vehicle for any number of dysfunctional food practices and unhealthy products.
The low-fat diet gave us zero-fat, high-sugar cookies you could gorge on.
The Mediterranean diet brought us canola-olive oil blends and beans to replace meat.
Veganism popularized peanuts and almonds as “high-protein” foods.
And plant-based... well, it introduced the most execrable slew of fake meats the world has ever known.
"Plant-based" has solidified the assumption in millions of minds that plants are inherently good and meat is bad. And so, we end up with fake nut milks instead of the real thing. Parents give their babies almond milk formula. Go to a café, and 75% of the orders are for oat milk lattes. We wonder why there’s an epidemic of low bone mineral density among young women.
We get an epidemic of protein deficiency because people think a cup of garbanzo beans, a couple of handfuls of almonds, and a meatless "burger" provide enough amino acids to build muscle, maintain neurotransmitter production, run the enzymes we need, and trigger proper gene expression.
We get kids with vitamin B deficiencies, low iron levels, and impaired thyroid status because some plant-based consultant convinced an entire state board of education to start doing plant-based Thursdays and Fridays in the cafeteria.
It’s ridiculous.
Most of you are on board with this idea. You’re eating whole, natural foods with plenty of animal protein. But I suspect many of your friends and family might be getting swept up in the growing collective assumption, even among meat-eaters, that meat is bad and should be limited whenever possible. They point to studies showing the supposed superiority of low-meat diets, and they worry that the chicken breast or salmon filet on their salad, the N.Y. strip steak at dinner, is harming them somehow.
The thing about many studies is that they’re not comparing a person eating a bunch of plant-based junk food to someone eating vegetables, tubers, fruits, eggs, dairy, and fresh meat. They’re comparing someone eating an "ideal" plant-based diet designed by nutritionists to someone eating pizza, french fries, and hot dogs.
The main lesson here is that you can’t outsource your thinking and critical analysis to trendy phrases and terms, especially if those terms are marketing buzzwords so broad they’re meaningless. Plant-based can mean roots, tubers, greens, fresh fruit, berries, mushrooms, herbs, spices, and legumes. Plant-based can also mean pasta, meat substitutes with unpronounceable ingredient lists a mile long, refined sugar, vegan gelatin, pastries, and cakes.
Before you start adopting and adhering to a dietary ideology, make sure you know what you’re getting into. Understand what it all entails.
