Adding more plants to your diet? That’s a good thing for your health, and it’s keeping with the trend of consuming more vegetables, less meat, and dairy. According to Harvard Health, plant-based diets may lower the risk of cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, obesity, and some forms of cancer. However, plant-based is merely a general term for a diet that contains mostly plants. There are at least five approaches to eating plant-based, some of which are more restrictive than others. Let’s look at each.
A Plant-Focused Diet
Another term for a plant-focused diet, one that includes lots of plants, but doesn’t preclude meat, is the flexitarian diet. A flexitarian approach is one where the focus is on plants, but if you eat a flexitarian diet, you may still consume some animal-based foods.
Some people who adopt a plant-focused diet eliminate certain forms of animal-based foods in moderation, including red meat, while others eat all forms of meat but in limited amounts, and emphasize plants. An example of a plant-focused, or flexitarian diet, is someone who participates in Meatless Monday. They may eat mostly plants at times but still eat meat in moderation.
The focus of the flexitarian approach is to cut back on animal-derived foods, rather than eliminate them. Some people who adopt a flexitarian or plant-focused diet gradually transition to a diet that contains only plants. A plant-focused diet may be a transition toward a completely plant-based diet, but some people stick to a flexitarian approach longer term.
Plant-Based Diets
Plant-based is a general term for people who consume a diet that centers on plants. In past decades, most people who consumed a diet of only plants called themselves vegetarian or vegan, but plant-based has become the new term that people use to describe some plant-based approaches to eating. However, the term creates some confusion.
According to the Vegan Society of Canada, plant-based products have evolved so that manufacturers can call a packaged product plant-based if it contains up to 5% animal-based ingredients. Therefore, plant-based diets may contain small amounts of animal-derived ingredients, but the focus is on eating mostly plants. A person may adopt a plant-based diet for ethical, environmental, or health reasons, but it is most common that people adopt a plant-based diet for health reasons. People who go plant-based for ethical reasons are often stricter in avoiding animal-based ingredients.
Whole, Plant-Based Diet
A plant-based diet emphasizes food, not of animal origin, it doesn’t preclude processed foods. However, a whole plant-based diet focuses on unprocessed foods, and not at all on packaged plant-based options with a lengthy list of ingredients. While some people adopt a plant-based diet for ethical reasons, those who go whole food plant-based often do it for health reasons.
Although people sometimes equate eating plant-based foods with healthy, that’s not always the case. There’s a wealth of processed plant-based options available, and the number continues to grow. If you pick up an item at the grocery store that calls itself plant-based, you might think it’s healthy, until you check the ingredient list.
Some of the most popular packaged meat-free items are plant-based burgers made from various non-animal-based ingredients and processed to look and taste like meat. Due to the processing and lengthy list of ingredients, these options don’t appeal to proponents of a whole, plant-based diet. The typical plant-based diets can be healthy or unhealthy, depending on whether you eat lots of processed, packaged, plant-based fare, while a whole, plant-based diet is usually healthy because it’s unprocessed.
Vegetarian Diet
Vegetarian diets are built around the idea of not eating anything that must be killed. People who adopt a vegetarian diet often do it for ethical reasons because they oppose slaughtering animals. However, they will eat eggs and drink milk, since consuming these foods doesn’t involve slaughter. Like a plant-based diet, vegetarian diets can be healthy or unhealthy based on food choices, whether it consists of mostly packaged fare or whole foods.
Vegetarian diets can get complicated too since there are various twists on vegetarianism. For example, some vegetarians are:
- Ovo-vegetarian: Avoid all red meat, seafood, poultry, and dairy, but eat eggs
- Lacto-ovo vegetarian: Avoid all red meat, seafood, poultry, but eat eggs and dairy products.
- Lacto-vegetarian: Avoid all red meat, seafood, eggs, and poultry, but consume dairy
- Pescatarian: Avoid red meat, poultry, eggs, and dairy, but eat fish
Vegan Diet
The vegan diet is the most restrictive, since vegans avoid all foods of animal origin, including eggs and dairy, since they come from an animal. Many vegans don’t wear leather or wool, since they’re derived from an animal. People go vegan for various reasons; some for health, but mostly for ethical reasons, including concerns about the environment or the treatment of animals. Being the most restrictive approach to eating plants, vegans may need to take supplements, like vitamin B12, since this B-vitamin is only in animal-based foods. Vegans may also need to take extra steps to get enough calcium, zinc, and omega-3s.
The Bottom Line
Now you have a better idea of the types of diets that emphasize plants and their variations. Whether you adopt a liberal type of flexitarian diet or a vegan eating style, you can’t go wrong adding more plants to your diet. For the healthiest approach, ensure that the plant-based options you choose are as whole and unprocessed as possible. Enjoy the many options that eating plants offers!
References:
- Harvard Health Publishing. “Plant-based diets are best… or are they?”
- VeganCanada.org. “Plant-based labels are changing”
- Perm J. 2016 Summer; 20(3): 15-082. Published online 2016 Jul 6. doi: 10.7812/TPP/15-082.
- WebMD.com. “What Is a Vegan Diet?”
- “6 Types of Vegetarian Diets: A Dietitian Explains.” 07 Dec. 2020, https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/types-of-vegetarians.
- “Vegetarian diet: How to get the best nutrition – Mayo Clinic.” 20 Aug. 2020, https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/nutrition-and-healthy-eating/in-depth/vegetarian-diet/art-20046446.
- “The 7 Different Vegetarian Diets | Types of Vegetarianism.” 22 Jul. 2020, https://www.bistromd.com/nutrition/the-7-types-of-vegetarian-diets.
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