{"id":34514,"date":"2026-08-28T12:38:28","date_gmt":"2026-08-28T16:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/?p=34514"},"modified":"2026-08-27T18:16:54","modified_gmt":"2026-08-27T22:16:54","slug":"the-term-plant-based-diet-is-ambiguous-among-u-s-adults-its-interpretation-differs-significantly-between-older-and-younger-adults-new-study-finds","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/2026\/08\/the-term-plant-based-diet-is-ambiguous-among-u-s-adults-its-interpretation-differs-significantly-between-older-and-younger-adults-new-study-finds\/","title":{"rendered":"The term \u2018plant-based\u2019 diet is ambiguous among U.S. adults; its interpretation differs significantly between older and younger adults, new study finds"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Washington, D.C. <\/strong>\u2014 When referring to diet, the term \u201cplant-based\u201d has mixed interpretations among U.S. adults, and its meaning varies significantly among demographic groups, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/journals.sagepub.com\/doi\/10.1177\/15598276261480005\">new research published in <em>the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe term plant-based has become popular in recent years and its meaning has never been clearly defined,\u201d explained Dr. Anna Herby, nutrition education specialist at the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine and co-author of the study. \u201cThe greatest benefits of a plant-based diet stem from completely avoiding animal products. As dietitians who promote this healthful dietary pattern, we wanted to understand how people interpret the terminology in order to more clearly communicate about it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Key findings of the study include:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>56% said \u201cplant-based\u201d means vegan\u2014avoiding all animal products.<\/li>\n<li>35% said it means eating abundant plant foods while still eating some meat, dairy and eggs.<\/li>\n<li>7% said they didn&#8217;t know.<\/li>\n<li>2% gave another answer.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Interpretation also varied significantly by demographic group: 63% of adults ages 65-94 equated plant-based with vegan, compared with 51% of 18-to-34-year-olds.<\/p>\n<p>The study analysis drew on the results of a survey of 2,202 U.S. adults conducted in July 2025 that was designed and executed by Morning Consult following the Best Practices for Survey Research of the American Association of Public Opinion Research.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDefining \u2018plant-based\u2019 as excluding all animal products <strong>could make it easier for consumers<\/strong> to make confident decisions about food products by knowing that the term means there are no animal products,\u201d said study co-author Shannon Menhardt, MS, a registered dietitian with the Barnard Medical Center. \u201cA consistent definition could also make research findings and dietary recommendations easier to interpret and help provide clearer messaging for health professionals, patients, and the media.\u201d<\/p>\n<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on the_content --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on the_content -->","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Washington, D.C. \u2014 When referring to diet, the term \u201cplant-based\u201d has mixed interpretations among U.S. adults, and its meaning varies significantly among demographic groups, according to new research published in the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine. \u201cThe term plant-based has become popular in recent years and its meaning has never been clearly defined,\u201d explained Dr.&hellip;&nbsp;<!-- AddThis Advanced Settings generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><!-- AddThis Share Buttons generic via filter on get_the_excerpt --><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":34515,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"no","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","neve_meta_sidebar":"","neve_meta_container":"","neve_meta_enable_content_width":"off","neve_meta_content_width":70,"neve_meta_title_alignment":"","neve_meta_author_avatar":"","neve_post_elements_order":"","neve_meta_disable_header":"","neve_meta_disable_footer":"","neve_meta_disable_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[353,808],"tags":[96,127,208,62],"class_list":["post-34514","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-eating-disorders-2","category-food","tag-consumer-psychology","tag-decision-making","tag-food","tag-stress"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34514","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=34514"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34514\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34516,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34514\/revisions\/34516"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34515"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=34514"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=34514"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/therapytoronto.ca\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=34514"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}