Judging from the proliferation of Internet buzz, people are trying out plant-based diets. Science supports the benefits of eating mostly food from plants, but it’s confusing to understand. Plus, there’s a lot of hype about the different diets and which are best. Vegan? Vegetarian? What about Ovo-lacto and pescaterian? Here’s what’s up with plant-based buzzwords.
A plant-based diet consists of foods derived from plants, including vegetables, grains, nuts, seeds, legumes and fruits, and with few or no animal products. That may seem obvious, but since “plant-based” is such a trendy word all over the internet and supermarkets, let’s get some clarity on what all the plant diet buzz words mean.
A plant based-diet is not necessarily vegetarian. The use of the phrase plant-based has changed over time, and examples can be found of the phrase “plant-based diet” being used to refer to vegan diets, which contain no food from animal sources, to vegetarian diets which may include dairy and/or eggs but no meat, and to diets with varying amounts of animal-based foods, such as semi-vegetarian diets which contain small amounts of meat.
Global Sales of Plant-based Food
In Europe, consumption of plant-based meat substitutes was 40% of the world market in 2019, with sales forecast to grow by 60% through 2025 due mainly to concerns for health, food security, and animal welfare.
In the United States during 2019, the retail market for plant-based foods was growing at eight times the rate of the general retail food market.
A Brief Guide to Plant-Based Diet Buzzwords
In various sources, “plant-based diet” has been used to refer to:
- Veganism: diet of vegetables, legumes, fruit, grains, nuts, and seeds, but no food from animal sources.
- Fruitarianism: vegan diet consisting primarily of fruit.
- Raw veganism: vegan diet in which food is uncooked and sometimes dehydrated.
- Vegetarianism: diet of vegetables, legumes, fruit, nuts, and grains, that may include eggs and dairy, but no meat.[2]
- Ovo-lacto vegetarianism: includes dairy and eggs
- Ovo vegetarianism: includes eggs but no dairy
- Lacto vegetarianism: includes dairy but no eggs
- Semi-vegetarianism: mostly vegetarian diet with occasional inclusion of meat and/or poultry.
- Macrobiotic diet: semi-vegetarian diet that highlights whole grains, vegetables, beans, miso soup, sea vegetables, and traditionally or naturally processed foods, with or without seafood and other animal products.
- Pescatarian: semi-vegetarian diet with eggs, dairy and seafood.
- Flexitarian: semi-vegetarian diet that includes limiting meat intake daily and/or being vegetarian only on certain days of the week.
Health Research on Plant Diets
Plant-based diets are under preliminary research to assess whether they may improve metabolic measures in health and disease, and if there are long-term effects on diabetes. When clinical studies are focused to the types of plant-based foods, such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, and nuts, the association of diet and improvement of diabetes biomarkers was strengthened.
Plant-based diets were also associated with improved emotional and physical well-being, relief of depression, quality of life, and general health in diabetic people. Cognitive and mental effects of a plant-based diet are inconclusive.
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