PLANT BASED: what do we mean?

Browsing through social media, blogs &c you will surely have already come across the trending word of the moment: "Plant Based". But what does it mean? And what variations does it imply? Today let's clarify things a little.

Meaning

Literally translated from English, "plant based" stands for "plant-based", and is used both to imply foods that are 100% plant-based in their composition (such as IoBoscovivoJ products), and to indicate a plant-based diet. While the first use is very clear, the latter aspect is more confusing, thanks to the rapidity with which new terms and groups of belonging to the various dietary regimes are coined.

Plant-based diets: let's clarify things a little

A vegetarian diet is generally defined as an eating pattern in which all types of meat are excluded. However, there are variants: the ovolattovegetarians, who also eat eggs and dairy products, the so-called "strict vegetarians" or, more commonly, vegans , who do not eat any food of animal origin (including honey, for example), and the so-called " pescetarians ”, who exclude meat from their diet but consume eggs, dairy products and fish (1).

Aware of the ongoing confusion, the European Vegetarian Union in 2018 expressed the need for a definition of vegetarian and vegan in the context of food labelling, but this objective has not yet been achieved, in fact different associations coin different definitions, for example example:

• ProVeg International, an organization that encourages the adoption of a vegetarian diet, uses the terminology "plant based" to refer to diets based exclusively on plant foods, a synonym for "vegan diet",
• the British Dietetic Association informs that a plant-based diet also includes ovolactovegetarians, pescatarians and flexitarians, therefore not just the vegans mentioned above, explaining that "a plant-based diet is based on foods derived from plants, including vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds and fruit, with little or no animal products" (1). The definitions of plant based, vegetarian diets and related subcategories given by this English association are summarized in the following table:

Concluding:

The improper use of the term "plant based diet" and the divergent terminology could lead to an incorrect interpretation of the data and make it more difficult to compare the results of various scientific studies, which are increasingly increasing, aimed at comparing the state of health between subjects who follow an omnivorous diet and those who follow a "plant based" one, as the type of food consumed in the latter is not clear. This, together with the lack of clarity for a consumer who wants dedicated labelling, leads us to hope that clarity is achieved, but above all to advise consumers once again to carefully read the list of ingredients printed on the packages: the latter, in fact, he never lies!!

Bibliogafra:

• Hargreaves SM, Rosenfeld DL, Moreira AVB, Zandonadi RP. plant based and vegetarian diets: an overview and definition of these dietary patterns. Eur J Nutr. 2023 Apr;62(3):1109-1121. doi: 10.1007/s00394-023-03086-z. Epub 2023 Jan 22. PMID: 36681744.
• https://www.foodandtec.com/it-it/alimentazione-plant-based-definizioni-trend-aspetti-nutrizionali-e-salutistici