Buzz
Adopting a plant-based diet doesn’t automatically give you a free pass from heart disease. (Vegan junk food definitely exists.) However, a new study that supposedly shows some plant-based diets are superior... didn’t actually compare plant-based diets to each other.
The Headline: Unhealthy plant-based diets may raise the risk of heart disease
The Story: If you aimed to compare healthy vegan diets to unhealthy ones, you’d likely start with a group of vegans. (“Plant-based” is now a popular term for vegan and mostly-vegan diets.) But that’s not how this study was conducted. “In these cohorts, very few individuals refrain from eating animal products (i.e., vegans), so we couldn’t do this comparison,” explained author Ambika Satija in an email.
Instead, the study evaluated omnivores' diets based on how closely they resembled a “healthy plant-based” or “unhealthy plant-based” diet. Even the highest-scoring individuals still consumed animal products 3 to 4 times daily. Those with the lowest scores consumed 5 to 6 servings. The difference isn’t substantial.
The study also failed to differentiate between healthy and unhealthy animal products: fish, yogurt, and bacon grease would all lower your scores equally.
Still curious about the findings? Here it is. Omnivores whose diets were closer to a “healthy plant-based” diet were somewhat less likely to develop coronary heart disease. These individuals earned points for consuming fruits, vegetables, and whole grains, but lost points for juices, potatoes, desserts, and animal products.
The evidence pointing the other way was stronger: individuals who followed an unhealthy plant-based diet, with lots of desserts, few vegetables, and minimal meat, had a 35% higher risk of developing coronary heart disease compared to those who ate a lot of meat and vegetables but few desserts.
The Takeaway: The study didn’t compare healthy versus unhealthy plant-based diets. While you should still avoid vegan junk food, you probably already knew that.
