This Unhealthy “plant-Based Diet” Study Did Not Actually Compare Plant-Based Diets
If you eat a plant-based diet, you won’t get an automatic card to get rid of heart disease. ( There is definitely such a thing as vegan junk food.) But new research that supposedly confirms that some plant-based diets are better than others … have not really compared plant-based diets to each other at all.
Headline : An Unhealthy Plant-Based Diet May Increase Your Risk of Heart Disease
History : If you wanted to compare good vegan diets to bad ones, you would think you would start with the vegan population. (“Plant-based” is the new buzzword for vegan and mostly vegan diets.) But this study was not done that way. “There are very few people in these cohorts who do not eat animal products (eg vegans), so we were not able to do that,” author Ambika Satia told us in an email.
Instead, the study assessed the diet of omnivores based on how close they were to a “healthy plant-based diet” or “unhealthy plant-based diet.” Even people who scored the top 10% still ate animal products 3-4 times a day. The people with the worst results ate 5 to 6 servings. It doesn’t make a big difference.
The study also didn’t differentiate between healthy and unhealthy animal foods: Fish, yogurt, and bacon fat would lower your ratings equally.
Curious about the results anyway? Here it is. Omnivores who ate a diet closer to a “healthy plant” diet were less likely to have coronary artery disease. These people earned points for fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, and lost points for juice, potatoes, desserts, and animal products.
The evidence in the opposite direction was stronger: People who ate an unhealthy plant-based diet, with lots of desserts, few vegetables, and little meat, were 35% more likely to develop coronary artery disease than people who ate a lot of meat and meat. vegetables, but few desserts.
Takeaway : No part of the study compared healthy versus unhealthy plant-based diets. You should still give up vegan junk food, but you don’t need me to tell you that.