Plant-Based Diet

Overview

A plant-based diet is a diet primarily based on foods derived from plants, including vegetables, whole grains, nuts, seeds, and fruits, but with few or no animal products (Tuso et. al 61). Countless studies have used the phrase “plant-based diet” to refer to diets that primarily consist of plant foods and limited consumption of animals foods and processed foods, while others clearly draw a difference between plant-based diets and plant-only diets. For this reason it is imperative to understand what the term “plant-based diet” refers to, and the differences in the different kinds of plant-based diets. It should be noted that the term “plant-based” is often used interchangeably with vegetarian or vegan, but vegetarian and vegan fall under the umbrella of plant-based diets. The following definitions of various types of plant-based diets are from a nutritional update guideline for physicians (Tuso et. al 62):

Vegan (or total vegetarian): Excludes all animal products, especially meat, seafood, poultry, eggs, and dairy products. Does not require consumption of whole foods or restrict fat or refined sugar.

• Raw food, vegan: Same exclusions as veganism as well as the exclusion of all foods cooked at high temperatures.
• Fruitarianism: Primarily consists of fruits.

Vegetarian: Excludes meat, but may include dairy and eggs.

• Lacto-vegetarian: Excludes eggs, meat, seafood, and poultry and includes milk products.
• Ovo-vegetarian: Excludes meat, seafood, poultry, and dairy products and includes eggs.
• Lacto-ovo vegetarian: Excludes meat, seafood, and poultry and includes eggs and dairy products.

Semi-vegetarian:

• Mediterranean: Similar to whole-foods, plant-based diet but allows small amounts of chicken, dairy products, eggs, and red meat once or twice per month. Fish and olive oil are encouraged. Fat is not restricted.
• Whole-foods, plant-based, low-fat: Encourages plant foods in their whole form, especially vegetables, fruits, legumes, and seeds and nuts (in smaller amounts). For maximal health benefits this diet limits animal products. Total fat is generally restricted.

Despite these smaller differences, there is evidence that a broadly defined plant-based diet has significant health benefits. Overall, a plant-based diet “aims to maximize consumption of nutrient-dense plant foods while minimizing processed foods, oils, and animal foods,” which includes dairy products like milk, cheese, and yogurt and other animal products like eggs (Tuso et. al 62). They encourage large amounts of “vegetables, fruits, beans, peas, lentils, soybeans, seeds, and nuts (in smaller amounts) and is generally low fat” (Tuso 62).

Plant-based eating patterns are the norm in many parts of the world, but remain an exception in Western countries. Today, “about 2.5% of adults in the US and 4% of adults in Canada follow some sort of self-described vegetarian diet” (Dwyer 328). The increasing popularity of plant-based diets is due to the reported health benefits by many studies, especially its role in reducing cardiovascular disease (CVD). Several studies have found a link between animal-based diets, like that of the Western diet, and incidences of CVD, and found that groups consuming mostly plant-based foods have lower rates of heart disease (Fraser). These findings highlight the importance of nutrient sources and support recommendations to increase the amount of plant protein consumption. This is turn calls for an update on nutritional education for physicians, patients, and the public about the largely unrecognized protein content of plants (i.e., peanuts and beef having the same protein content) (Williams 423). But while these recommendations are being made, it is important to note that not everyone has the financial means to sustain a plant-based diet and that implications follow those who are not able to sustain this diet.

Background

The earliest forms of veganism, an extreme and restrictive kind of plant-based diet, can be found in Ancient India, Greece, and the Middle-East. Philosophers and poets within these regions switched to plant-based diets in order to improve their health. Their reasoning for becoming vegans was “based on health, the transmigration of souls, animal welfare, and the view that if humans deserve justice, so do animals” (Dombrowski 141-143). However, it wasn’t until the 19th century in England and the United States that vegetarian/vegan diets became significant parts of modern culture (Gregory). During 1815 in London, a physician by the name of William Lambe, claimed that his plant based diet would cure “anything from tuberculosis to acne” (Shelley). Within the U.S. during the 1830’s, Sylvester Graham’s “Meatless Graham Diet,” caught on as a popular health remedy and diet for a healthier lifestyle (Smith 33).  These two events sparked the beginnings of vegetarianism in today’s society, and several vegan communities were established. For most vegetarians today, their “investment in vegetarian eating as an all-encompassing philosophical system is minimal,” as they have plant-based eating styles but do not subscribe to vegetarianism (Dwyer 323). A smaller group of vegetarians whose “eating patterns serve as badges of honor for a deeper and more encompassing set of beliefs,” subscribe to the belief system of vegetarianism (Dwyer 323). Vegetarianism is not only an eating pattern, but it is also a philosophy. Followers of vegetarianism are a minority of those who follow plant-based diets and “hold strong convictions about the moral, metaphysical, ethical, or political appropriateness of their eating choices,” (Dwyer 323).

In the United States, a vegetarian food movement emerged during the 1960s and 1970s from the counterculture phenomenon that raised concerns about the environment and the diets at the time, leading to distrust in food producers and increased interest in organic gardening (Smith 197). The following decades gave rise to research by scientists and doctors. Today, there is increasing evidence supporting the health advantages of nutrient within plant-based diets, bringing more awareness to physicians.

Perspectives

Currently, there is a large debate on nutritional recommendations about whether or not plant-based diets are the healthiest food patterns. Many of today’s leading scientists, physicians, and nutritionists have differing views on what diet is the best to follow. T. Colin Campbell, professor emeritus of nutritional sciences at Cornell University, argues that a vegan diet is healthier than diets with large amounts of animal fat and protein, like the Western Diet, in the book The China Study (Campbell and Rodriguez). The China Study analyzes the relationship between the consumption of animal products and chronic illnesses such as diabetes, CVD, and breast cancer. The study concluded that people “who eat a predominantly whole-food, plant-based diet—avoiding animal products as a main source of nutrition, including beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, cheese, and milk, and reducing their intake of processed foods and refined carbohydrates—will escape, reduce, or reverse the development of numerous diseases,” (Campbell and Rodriguez). The risk of cancer and CVD is increased by consuming animal-based foods and subscribing to a high protein diet that causes excess protein and an unbalancing of nutrients. Casein, the main protein of cow’s milk, is the most “relevant chemical carcinogen ever identified; its cancer-producing effects occur in animals at consumption levels close to normal” (Campbell and Rodriguez).

Although the opposing side will argue that including meat and dairy products is the best way to give your body the nutrients it needs, Campbell strongly believes “plant-based foods have plenty of protein and calcium along with far greater amounts of countless other essential nutrients (such as antioxidants and complex carbohydrates) than meat and dairy” (Campbell and Rodriguez). Moreover, supporters of plant-based diets have doubts in the knowledge produced by governmental agencies. The recommendations from the government for certain groups to increase their protein and iron intake are from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, “an agency long known to be subservient to the meat and dairy industries,” (Campbell and Rodriguez). The dairy industry has promoted the myth that milk and its products increase bone health. The evidence is “now abundantly convincing that higher consumption of dairy is associated with higher rates of bone fracture and osteoporosis,” according to research groups from Yale and Harvard University.

Contrastingly, Nancy Rodriguez, a professor of nutritional sciences at the University of Connecticut, believes it is healthy to eat meat and dairy products as part of a balanced diet. Rodriguez stated “It is simply untrue to suggest that animal protein causes cancer,” (Campbell and Rodriguez). She believes that each of the food groups– fruits, vegetables, grains, protein and dairy– offers essential nutrients, and that removing one from the diet compromises one’s overall health. Including animal products in a balanced diet allows you to receive essential nutrients without excess calories— “A three-ounce serving of beef has less than 10% of the calories” recommended daily value while “supplying more than 10% of the daily value for 10 essential nutrients” (Campbell and Rodriguez). Contrary to Campbell’s assertions, Rodriguez believes casein is essential, and its nutritional qualities and ability to strengthen bones has been established by the nutrition and science community. As a supporter of traditional beliefs, Rodriguez values the “Dozens of randomized, controlled, clinical trials… that have demonstrated that calcium and dairy products contribute to stronger bones,” (Campbell and Rodriguez). “These trials… outweigh any observational studies which, by their design, cannot show a causal relationship between eliminating meat and dairy foods and a subsequent improvement in health,” (Campbell and Rodriguez). Leading health organizations, like the American Cancer Society, emphasize the consideration of the total diet when determining the effects of foods and nutrients on health. Research from several sources shows that other factors, such as smoking, consuming alcohol, maintaining a healthy weight and exercising regularly, are more important in cancer prevention than eating or avoiding any individual food (Campbell and Rodriguez).

Topical Context

Plant-based diets have several meaning for different academics across varying disciplines. Topics like diets and nutrition are typically associated with physicians and nutritionists. As previously mentioned, many physicians and nutritionists have differing views about the benefits of plant-based diets.  Within the science community, it is mostly used to determine the effects the diet has on the human body. Doctor Smith-Warner, an epidemiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, explains the anticancer benefits found in fruits and vegetables. A cell’s genetic material must first be altered, then the cell most grow wildly and spread in order for cancer to develop in the body. Dr. Smith-Warner argues “Plants work their magic to discourage cancer via a score of substances they contain, such as fiber, vitamins, minerals, and chemicals called phytochemicals,” (Barone 108). The phytochemicals found in a plant-based diet affect every step of cancer development by “influencing hormone patterns, preventing mutations to DNA, affecting how we detoxify chemical carcinogens, altering how are cells reproduce and divide, and inhibiting a tumorous blood supply so it can’t feed itself” (Barone 108). Even if your genes are against you, the anticancer effects found within fruits and vegetables are powerful. T. Colin Campbell also believes this diet can “prevent and even reverse 70% to 80% of existing, symptomatic disease” (Campbell and Rodriguez).

Academic in the public health discipline may view plant-based diets as a way to improve the health of a nation as a whole. For example, the potential implications of a healthier diet like a plant-based diet include “a reduction in disease-related expenditures, such as drug costs and hospitalizations for stroke, heart failure, chronic kidney disease, and myocardial infarction associated with systemic hypertension, which is present in 58% of Medicare beneficiaries” (CMS). If a large scale adoption of plant-based nutrition took place, the incidence of hypertension could reduce to 25% of the current rate, which “could result in savings of nearly 30% of the Medicare budget,” (Williams 424). Furthermore, academics in the environmental science discipline (i.e. environmentalists) look at plant-based diets as a more sustainable diet for the environment. An analysis conducted by the department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Cornell University determined that a “meat-based diet requires more energy, land, and water resources than the lactoovovegetarian diet,” (Pimentel 663). The lactoovovegetarian diet, a kind of plant-based diet, is more sustainable than the typical American meat-based diet.

Connection to Politics of Health

Plant-based diets are related to politics of health because they are linked to the concepts of consumerist health and racialization. In Against Health, Jonathan Metzl argues that “health is a term replete with value judgments, hierarchies, and blind assumptions that speak as much about power and privilege as they do about well-being” (1). Health is a “desired state, but it is also a prescribed state and an ideological position,” that is shaped by consumerist rhetoric (Metzl 2).  In this article, Metzl discusses consumerist rhetoric and the role of marketing and advertisements in promoting “health.” Consumerist rhetoric “reflects social and economic norms under the guise of scientific information,” (Metzl 6). The moral ideologies found within these advertisements are pushed onto consumers to encourage different habits, but ultimately allows for “growing numbers of practitioners from within medicine and public health… to dictate our lifestyles and laws,” (Metzl 6). With a medical-industrial complex that seeks patients, the only way to know you are healthy “is to become a customer,” which is what advertisements that promote plant-based diets aim to seek (Metzl 6). These advertisements are trying to sell a healthier lifestyle, and in doing so, they disapprove of and discourage other lifestyle choices by making them seem “unhealthy.” Promotions for plant-based diets, like this documentary What the Health, are perfect examples of how plant-based diet advertisements make other lifestyle choices seem unhealthy, and thus encourage consumers to buy into the seemingly healthier diet.

Racialization is the process of giving a racial character to something or ascribing racial identities to a relationship, social practice, or group (Murji and Solomos 2). Although they are an increasingly popular lifestyle habit, plant-based diets are known to be more of a financial burden on consumers who opt for this healthier diet. Today, organic and natural foods tend to be more costly than processed and packaged foods. A study conducted in Australia found that in just six years, the cost of healthy food increased by around 50% across the state of Queensland and also increased more than the cost of less healthy alternatives (Harrison 179). “The price increase recorded raises concerns about healthy food access for all Queenslanders,” especially those from low socioeconomic backgrounds. Since “environmental influences, such as food access, remain major contributors to the higher death rates experienced by people from more socioeconomically disadvantaged areas,” (Harrison 184). Not only to these poor areas lack food access to affordable and nutritious food, also known as food deserts, but the healthier food choices are more expensive, often forcing individuals from low socioeconomic backgrounds to eat nutrient-poor foods. “Higher prices and limited availability of healthy foods are barriers to healthy eating,” which compromise one’s nutritional and health status and “add to the burden of obesity and chronic disease,” (Drewnowski 161). In the United States, minorities like Hispanics and African Americans are disproportionately from low socioeconomic backgrounds. These minority groups either live in areas that have limited access to nutritious food (i.e. food deserts) or cannot afford the healthy foods offered in their areas. An in-depth look at adult obesity rates found that among United State adults, “Black and Latino populations have substantially higher rates of obesity than do White populations,” (State of Obesity). Therefore, illnesses like obesity and chronic diseases that arise from unhealthy diets can become racialized, as individuals from minority groups often cannot afford to sustain a plant-based diet and are more likely to suffer the consequences of unhealthy food choices. Factors that address the prices of healthy foods need to be addressed, especially amongst vulnerable groups who suffer a disproportionate burden of poor health.

Another link relating plant-based diets to the politics of health is found in the idea of certain health habits within a society being normalized. The World Health Organization currently defines “health” as “a state of complete physical, mental and social well-being and not merely the absence of disease or infirmity,” (WHO). The social aspects of health are especially prominent in the apparent normalcy of habits. In “Biomedicine, the whiteness of sleep, and the wages of spatiotemporal normativity in the United States,” Matthew Wolf-Meyer, an anthropologist, argues that behind the changes in the way medicine is practiced is the “expectation of orderly bodies—of “white” bodies that exemplify social and cultural norms of biology and behavior,” (446). In the United States, medical ideas of normativity are that the “white heteronormative subject is the standard against which disorderly and nonwhite subjects are to be judged,” (Wolf-Meyer 446). This is the case with the advocation of plant-based diets from public health companies and physicians: a standard diet and lifestyle is set, and if you are not abiding by it you are considered abnormal. As previously mentioned, following a diet that consists of little to no processed, and organic, foods is more expensive than its counterpart diet of processed foods. Historically, white Americans have had more access to capital that allows them to sustain this kind of diet. In this case, the nonwhite subjects Wolf-Meyer refers to in his article would be considered disorderly if they cannot follow the standard diet physicians and public health institutions recommend. In the United States, “The racialization of individuals… is increasingly accomplished through institutional actors, including scientists and physicians,” who also play a key role in creating normative health practices (Wolf-Meyer 446).

 

 

 

Works Cited

Barone, J. A lifesaving diet. Better Homes and Gardens, 2006, 76, 106-110. Retrieved fromhttp://login.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/login?url=https://search-proquest-com.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/docview/205338438?accountid=14816

Campbell, T. Colin, Campbell, Thomas M., II, and Ebrary, Inc. The China Study the Most Comprehensive Study of Nutrition Ever Conducted and the Startling Implications for Diet, Weight Loss and Long-term Health. 1st BenBella Books ed. Dallas, Tex.: BenBella, 2006,  pp. 139-152. Web.

Campbell, T Colin, and Nancy Rodriguez. “Would We Be Healthier With a Vegan Diet?” The Wall Street Journal, Dow Jones & Company, 18 Sept. 2012, www.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444184704577587174077811182.

Center for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). Chronic conditions among Medicare beneficiaries. (2012) Retrieved from https://www.cms.gov/researchstatistics-data-and-systems/statistics-trends-andreports/chronic-conditions/downloads/2012chartbook.pdf.

Drewnowski, Adam. “The Real Contribution of Added Sugars and Fats to Obesity.” Epidemiologic Reviews, Volume 29, Issue 1, 1 January 2007, pp. 160–171, https://doi-org.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/10.1093/epirev/mxm011

Dwyer, Johanna. “Vegetarian Diets.” (2005): [323]-328. Web. Retrieved from https://ac-els-cdn-com.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/B0122266943022791/3-s2.0-B0122266943022791-main.pdf?_tid=a99325c0-cd67-11e7-8a1b-00000aacb35d&acdnat=1511123257_723c38b3dfd6614652996f539691f8e0

Fraser, GE. “Vegetarian diets: what do we know of their effects on common chronic diseases?” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 89 (2009):1607S–12S.

Gregory, James. Of Victorians and Vegetarians, I. B. Tauris, 2007. Web.

Harrison, M., et al. “The Increasing Cost of Healthy Food.” Australian and New Zealand Journal of Public Health, vol. 34, no. 2, 2010, pp. 179–186.

Metzl, Jonathan, et al. Against Health How Health Became the New Morality. New York, New York University Press, 2010. Web. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-com.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/lib/Vand/detail.action?docID=865704.

Murji, Karim and John Solomos. Racialization : Studies in Theory and Practice. OUP Oxford, 2005, EBSCOhost, proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=162465&site=ehost-live&scope=site.

Pick, Phillip. “History of the JVS.” Jewish Vegetarian Society, 3 Apr. 2017, www.jvs.org.uk/2017/04/04/history-of-the-jvs/.

Pimentel, David, and Pimentel, Marcia. “Sustainability of Meat-based and Plant-based Diets and the Environment.” American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 78.3 (2003): S660-S663. Web.

Smith, Andrew F. Eating History. Columbia University Press, 2013, 197.

The State of Obesity. Special Report: Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Obesity, 2014, stateofobesity.org/disparities/.

Tuso, Philip J et al. “Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets.” The Permanente Journal 17.2 (2013): 61–66. PMC. Web.

Williams, K. A., & Patel, H. Healthy plant-based diet. Journal of the American College of  Cardiology, 2017, 70(4), 423-425. doi:http://dx.doi.org.proxy.library.vanderbilt.edu/10.1016/j.jacc.2017.06.006

WHO. Constitution of the World Health Organization. 2006. www.who.int/governance/eb/

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Wolf‐Meyer, Matthew. “Biomedicine, the Whiteness of Sleep, and the Wages of Spatiotemporal

Normativity in the United States.” American Ethnologist 42.3 (2015): 446-58. Web.

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