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Is there a difference between a "vegan" and a "plant-based" diet? —Mike K., St. Louis
When Fred & Ricky’s opened in Creve Coeur in 2016, SLM spoke with Kathleen and Richard Waidmann, the husband-and-wife owners of the metro’s first plant-based, grab-and-go healthy food concept. At the time, they said they much preferred using “plant-based” rather than the word “vegan” (synonymous terms at the time) due to its negative connotation.
“The word turns most people off,” Kathleen said. “We just want everybody to eat better.”
In six years, the plant-based/vegan movement has mushroomed, with restaurants and grocery stores offering more and more options. Meatless Mondays are still a thing, as are vegan and raw food vegan diets. With all of the increased attention and popularity—buoyed by terms like flexitarianism (a mostly plant-based diet that includes some meat)—the vegan/plant-based waters got muddied.
Today, the two terms are no longer synonymous. We asked two experts in the field what they thought of the shifting sands.
In 2019, Caryn Dugan, a longtime vegan cook and educator who goes by the moniker STLVegGirl, founded the Kirkwood-based Center for Plant-Based Living, the country’s first plant-based nutrition and culinary education center. Earlier this year, she organized STL Plant Based Restaurant Week, the first event of its kind in the area.
“Originally, the terms were synonymous, indicating 'plant-based' was the term for a healthy vegan diet," explains Dugan. "Enter food and product companies with deep pockets and large marketing budgets. Now, we’re seeing products...with eggs that say 'plant-based.' In the end, some of these big companies are giving us good excuses to continue bad habits. Even [a popular] detergent is claiming the word, so apparently anything involving plants is now 'plant-based.' There’s no standard, and the waters have indeed been muddied. People are confused and rightfully so. This is frustrating, which is why I rely so heavily on our Dr. [Jim] Loomis and lean on the real science if someone wants to prevent or reverse their chronic illness. In simple terms, more whole plants leads to better health.”
St. Louisan Mark Engel founded Fifth Taste Foods, which currently produces two product lines: a vegan product, oo’mämē chile crisp (available at retail), and Harvest Shreds (not yet available at retail but on the menu at Grace Meat + Three), a "sustainable plant protein" that Engel says rivals the experience of cooking and eating meat.
Addressing the initial question, Engel says, "While vegan is plant-based, it is a very restrictive form of plant-based eating in that no animals or animal byproducts like dairy, eggs, or honey are acceptable. There is no governing body defining 'plant-based eating,' but the general sense globally is we want to bring more plants into our diets. One should be able to follow a plant-based diet incorporating more plants and fewer animal products into their eating routine, which is better for you and the planet. We founded Fifth Taste Foods to make plant-based eating craveable for everyone, and we have one vegan product line and one vegetarian product line—both plant-based."
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