What Is a Plant-Based Diet, Exactly?
The phrase "plant-based diet" is being tossed around a lot these days. The Skeptical Cardiologist never knows what people mean when they use it and so must assume that most of the world is also puzzled by this trendy term. For some, a "plant-based diet" is what vegans eat. Veganism combines a diet free of animal products with a moral philosophy that rejects the "commodity status of animals." Vegans are the strictest of vegetarians, eschewing milk, fish, and eggs. One plant-based diet advocate in the introduction to a special issue of the Journal of Geriatric Cardiology wrote that "a plant-based diet consists of all minimally processed fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, herbs, and spices and excludes all animal products, including red meat, poultry, fish, eggs, and dairy products." You will notice that this cardiologist "excludes all animal products" and that the qualifying phrase "minimally processed...