Opinion

‘We Asked 10 Experts What the Phrase ‘Plant-Based Diet’ Means and No One Could Agree’

Paul Kita for Men’s Health rounds up some interesting info from the latest International Food Information Council Foundations’s Food and Health Survey:

Seventy-three people said they’ve heard of a “plant-based diet,” according to a survey by the International Food Information Council Foundation. Fifty-one percent of those polled said that they would be interested in learning more about a plant-based diet.

But here’s the thing: Even though consumers are familiar and interested in plant-based diets, they aren’t quite sure exactly what that means.

From the same survey…

• People who defined a “plant-based diet” as a vegan diet that avoids all animal products, including dairy and eggs: 32 percent.
• People who defined a “plant-based diet” as a diet that emphasizes minimally processed foods derived from plants and limits the consumption of animal products: 30 percent.
• People who defined a “plant-based diet” as a vegetarian diet: 20 percent.
• People who defined a “plant-based diet” as a diet that limits animal products and encourages eating as many fruits and vegetables as possible: 8 percent.

Neither the USDA nor the FDA currently have a definition for the term “plant-based.” Same goes for the medical and research community.

I’ve always felt that the term “plant-based” was a tabula rasa for historically hurricaned “vegan” term.

Veganism has zealots, while plant-based does not. Vegans are strict, while plant-based is ostensibly flexible. Vegans have a cultural history, PETA memories, and fairly set public perception. Plant-based appears new, different, and filled with opportunity.

This small switch let a lot of new people who hate vegans to try vegan food and not feel like they’re breaking their own moral code. “Plant-based” as a term is the best thing to happen to vegans since vegetables.

‘Shalt thou eat an Impossible Burger? Religious doctrine scrambles to catch up to new food technology.’

Laura Reiley with an incredibly interesting piece for the Washington Post:

This month, Tyson announced it is investing in a company that will launch plant-based shrimp early next year, raising a curious question. Will it be kosher? The short answer is its ingredients — which mimic the verboten crustacean with a proprietary algae blend — could well be both kosher and halal. Once the product launches, the company will seek certification so that Jews who keep kosher and Muslims — certain Muslim groups avoid shellfish — can enjoy a shrimp cocktail, scampi, a po’ boy or ceviche.

And yet. In this era of plenitude and choice and disruptive technology, what is permissible, what is forbidden and what is flouting the letter of religious law? The food system is in flux, the rise of plant-based meats and the promise of cell-cultured meats bending categories such that legislation, ideology and theology are scrambling to keep up.

If God says no pork, how does He feel about a very persuasive forgery? And if only beef from the forequarter is permitted, how will observant Jews parse meat grown in a lab, no bones and no quarters at all? How do you bleed an animal with no blood or slaughter an animal humanely if there’s no slaughter? And if you give up meat for Lent, what constitutes a cheat?

This bit from Rabbi Eli Lando, the chief customer relations officer with OK Kosher, is an interesting question:

“Is it a violation of the spirit of the law? That becomes a realm that you can never end.”

[…]

The prohibitions, he said, are about the actual creatures (pigs, shellfish, rabbits and reptiles), not a plant-based facsimile, however uncanny the likeness. Strictly kosher Jews, he notes, are frequently big fans of fake crab made of finely pulverized white fish. Lando sees plant-based meat as a revolution of sorts.

“A person today knows that being kosher does not mean you have to go to the back of the store and look for something like a second-class citizen. Having those products commonly available is achieving a great milestone,” he said.

And I didn’t know this was part of the Muslim tradition of Halal:

The inspection and certification process is similar for halal foods. For plant-based products designed to imitate haram products (pork and other foods forbidden by Islamic law), Roger Othman, director of consumer relations for Islamic Food and Nutrition Council of America, said words matter.

“Plant-based bacon bits, for example. The product would qualify to be halal but may be repugnant to halal consumers if the word bacon appeared in the name,” Othman said. “Halal consumers would not know what pork chews like, maybe not even what it smells or looks like. If plant-based, it could qualify to be halal, but the naming should not contain any pork-related words.”

Which ties slightly back into to the recent legal flare-up between many states’ meat-industries and free-speech advocates that would allow plant-based foods to call themselves “meat”, “sausage”, or even a “burger”. It would be interesting to see if certain products might be repackaged or relabeled depending on what stores they end up in — so that they might be allowed into Halal shops or supermarkets in certain states that deem meat-related labeling illegal.

It’d be interesting if many vegan products, once fully mainstream and with widespread use, moved to welcome religious or more niche audiences by changing parts of their products to appeal to those needs. Maybe we’ll see the same product packaged twice: one named to reference a similar flavor or product (i.e. Tofurkey or things labeled “Chik’n”), and then another where the words give the impression of an entirely new category of product (e.g. seitan, tofu, tempeh). Or if Impossible developed another heme product that they didn’t test on rats to try to entice a certain group of strict vegans. All of these things are possible, but I don’t know what it would take to be cost-effective.

‘When Vegan Influencers Quit Being Vegan, the Backlash Can Be Brutal’

From Cassidy Dawn Graves at Vice:

Last March, vegan YouTuber Yovana Mendoza posted a video on her channel, Rawvana, that rocked her followers to their cores.

“I definitely did not feel ready to talk about this,” Mendoza told the camera, her expression solemn.

She had garnered nearly two million subscribers for her raw vegan diet content, but had recently been spotted with a plate of fish and called out for her ostensible hypocrisy. In the video, which has since been made private, she explained that while six years of raw veganism “elevated [her] consciousness,” recently, her health had begun to suffer. She lost her period, she was “basically anemic,” and she was riddled with digestive issues. Eventually, she said, she couldn’t take it anymore, and started eating fish and eggs

The biggest problem with quote-unquote influencers of any kind is approaches and understanding can vary. They often are not experts but attract viewers who think they display an expertise. And what happens to their health is a display of that ignorance.

Eating an unhealthy diet of any kind will have adverse side effects. Not just a vegan one, and balancing a diet isn’t easy. Just look at the incredible amount of people in America with heart disease, high cholesterol, high blood pressure, and on and on. Health problems happen to carnivores and herbivores alike.

What’s frustrating for me is that instead of continuing to be vegan in a more common capacity, they rescind their whole ethos because their extreme form of veganism left them with health issues.

At least, the article gets it right:

Of course, many vegans are perfectly healthy. “Most healthy people should be able to adapt to an all-plant diet,” says Marion Nestle, nutritionist, professor, and James Beard Award-winning author. She emphasizes eating a “variety of plant food sources, taking in enough calories to maintain a healthy weight, and finding a good source of vitamin B12.”

[…]

Nestle notes these problems are more associated with “starvation” than a standard plant-based diet, which “should not cause people to lose weight or have any of those issues.”

The revolt and anger in their comment section speak to the worst part of veganism, in my opinion. Yelling will never change someone’s mind. Unfollow and move along. There’s likely someone better out there anyway.

People need to come to a more plant-focused lifestyle in their own way. Whether it’s for the environment, the animals, or for our health — no one is going to switch teams because they were given an ALL-CAPS rant in their comment section or bluntly told-off in person. And though I do think having vigilant convictions is great for the self, we can’t wrap others in the blanket of our beliefs.

‘The Most Dangerous Animal On Earth’

A perfect little photo.

And I loved this comment from Reddit user Ibar-Twigs in the comment section:

When I was a kid I used to love going to this woodland nearby (urban UK so this was a big deal). There was a wildlife trust clubhouse/cafe with a bunch of British wildlife exhibits telling you about local birds and such. The last exhibit was a sort of fairy door with a sign on it saying “Open if you dare and see the world’s most dangerous animal” or something along those lines. Open up the door and behold… A mirror. That really stuck with me and my young, impressionable mind.

‘Why I vote ‘Hell, no!’ on a vegan president’

From Steve Cuozzo:

Beware the Vegan-in-Chief.

The 2020 Democratic presidential pool includes not one, but two, meatless wonders.Booker, at least, says that he would never try to force his animal-free diet regimen down America’s throat.

[…]


“Everybody should eat what they want to . . . The last thing we want is government telling us what to eat,” the Democratic senator from New Jersey said in February.

But I’m scared. The 97% of Americans who aren’t vegan (according to a 2018 Gallup poll) should be, too.

Who’s Booker kidding that he or Gabbard wouldn’t turn the Land of the Free into the Land of Chia Seeds?

A gentle reminder for when you meet someone like Steve Cuozzo out in the wild, please remind them that 1 in 4 deaths in America come from heart disease.

‘There’s No Elegant Way to Eat a Corn Dog’

From Gary He for Eater:

The first weekend of the 2019 Iowa State Fair had it all: a butter cow, a craft beer tent, mutton bustin’, a Slipknot museum, and 20 candidates vying for the Democratic presidential nomination. Iowa is the home of the first nominating contests that will eventually determine the nominee from both parties, and the food-on-a-stick bonanza is the stage on which candidates vie for the hearts of Iowa voters and attention of the news media.

I’m not sure why I found these photos so funny. The headline really nails it. And I’m happy to hear the Iowa State Fair had some vegan options.

Cory Booker, the New Jersey senator who is famously vegan, tracked down a fried peanut butter and jelly sandwich on a stick. “Can we settle the Democratic primary by how many of these you can eat?” he said. “I think I could take the field.”

I’d seen a few things online mention that this would be a tough spot for Cory Booker with the turkey legs and corn dog traditions, and—as a vegan—I’ve been in the same barren situation: scant options and a lot of meat. What he found sounds good to me though.

I can’t imagine it’ll be a large part of this election, though it does make me wonder if a candidate’s diet could play a role in electability the way religion used to. (Think: JFK and Catholicism.) Now, many people are as strict with their diets as middle America has been with its religion.

‘Cauliflower Steaks Are an Abomination’

Jack Shepherd speaking the truth:

Cauliflower steaks were invented by the same devious villains who saddled us with Portobello mushrooms. It’s a fucking mushroom. It is nice with other things or in a sauce! It is not the food itself. This cabal is trying to make us eat fruits and vegetables as the main course by making them into shapes like “round and big” and thinking we won’t notice the difference. These evil fuckers haunt weddings, taunting vegan guests with grilled vegetables while everyone else gets to have food for dinner. It’s the same fucking people who are trying to make eggplant burgers happen, and I will not allow it.

Amen.