Plant-Based Diets for Personal, Population, and Planetary Health

Abstract

Worldwide, the burden of morbidity and mortality from diet-related chronic diseases is increasing, driven by poor diet quality and overconsumption of calories. At the same time, the global food production system is draining our planet's resources, jeopardizing the environment and future food security. Personal, population, and planetary health are closely intertwined and will all continue to be vulnerable to these threats unless action is taken. Fortunately, shifting current global dietary patterns towards high-quality, plant-based diets could alleviate these health and environmental burdens. Compared with typical Western diets with high amounts of animal products, healthy plant-based diets are not only more sustainable, but have also been associated with lower risk of chronic diseases such as obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some cancers. For personalized disease management and prevention, precision nutrition has the potential to offer more effective approaches tailored to individual characteristics such as the genome, metabolome, and microbiome. However, this area of research is in the early stages and is not yet ready for widespread clinical use. Therefore, it must not overshadow public health nutrition strategies, which have the power to improve health and sustainability on a larger scale. If widely implemented, interventions and policy changes that shift the globe towards healthy plant-based dietary patterns could be instrumental in ensuring future personal, population, and planetary health.

Prioritized Research for the Prevention, Treatment, and Reversal of Chronic Disease: Recommendations From the Lifestyle Medicine Research Summit

“…There is emerging evidence to support the benefits of plant-based dietary patterns in primary prevention of CVD. Long-term epidemiologic studies have found that a healthful plant-based diet (that does not necessarily exclude all animal products) was associated with a significantly lower risk of type 2 diabetes and CVD ( 42 ). Small intervention studies have shown that a shift from a typical western diet to a vegan diet substantially lowered a atherogenic gut flora metabolite called trimethylamine-N-oxide (TMAO) which is induced by higher consumption of animal products especially red meat ( 43 ).…”

Use of Soy-Based Formulas and Cow's Milk Allergy: Lights and Shadows

“…One of the main factors that has influenced the popularity of soy foods is the ever-growing interest of the population toward plant-based diets and their many health benefits, together with the recognized high protein quality of soy (31,(65)(66)(67).…”

“…The term "plant-based diets" includes many different dietary patterns that comprise higher quotas of plant products (vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds) than animal ones (66). Specifically, there is evidence that soy foods may reduce low-density lipoprotein (LDL)-cholesterol levels and modestly lower blood pressure, thus reducing the risk of coronary heart disease (68).…”

“…It is important to emphasize that the health benefits gained from adhering to a vegetarian or vegan diet can be obtained also through an omnivorous diet, involving the reduction of meat and an increase in the intake of plant foods (66,69). Together with the well-known health benefits, plant-based diets are associated with less environmental impact.…”

“…Together with the well-known health benefits, plant-based diets are associated with less environmental impact. However, a sustainable diet can also be achieved with dietary patterns characterized by low to moderate amounts of animal-based food and a high intake of plant-based food, such as the Mediterranean diet (66).…”