Genuine Question

[lolly07766]

This is a genuine question, and may seem silly to some so please be kind.

What's the difference between Plant based and veganism

For example I would say that I am plant based as I eat mainly veggies, beans, nuts etc have non dairy milk, but I occasionally eat eggs and sometimes chicken, you can now buy so many plant based products that weren't available a few years ago so makes it much easier. I'm slowly making the transition to vegan.

Is the whole plant based thing more about health than being a vegan, I have a friend who is vegan but has a very bad diet, he eats basically chips every day, of course I'm not saying being a vegan is unhealthy because I know it isn't. There's such a big hype around being plant based at the moment, I wonder why it's just not called being vegan.

I always interpret it as - plant based is what you eat. Veganism is a whole way of life - no leather, wool, silk etc, no products tested on animals.

In many countries "vegan" simple means that you don't eat any animal products.

In Britain, the British Vegan Society has long enforced a weird monopoly over the term, so you can only call yourself "a vegan" if you also avoid animal products/exploitation in all areas of life (to the extent that that is actually possible) and people who don't eat animal products are sniffily referred to as "plant-based", not vegan.

I’m not sure there’s a hard and fast answer. My understanding of it is vegan is the lifestyle, so not just food but clothing etc as well. Whereas plant based is diet only, I’d think of it as a vegan diet but understand some used it to describe a diet that focuses on plants, but don’t exclude animal products entirely.
I read an interesting article in a vegan lifestyle magazine the other day on this topic describing how the term is now used differently to how it was originally and frustrations around that.

You can have a healthy or unhealthy diet whether it is meat based, plant based or vegan.

Veganism is about more than simply what you eat.

People may choose a plant based diet for a range of reasons. Some of them will happily wear leather and eat food coloured with cochineal. A vegan wouldn't do those things.

@theneverendinglaundry

I always interpret it as - plant based is what you eat. Veganism is a whole way of life - no leather, wool, silk etc, no products tested on animals.

This. Veganism is a lifestyle choice as well as diet

Think plant based is just diet. And also usually seem to be less strict I.e, may eat eggs if from a local farm, or their own chickens rather than battery chickens. I also think lots of people don't want to label of vegan because then naturally people either take the much or question everything they do as though they're trying to catch them out, which sounds tiresome. Probably just easier to avoid the label snd say you eat plant based diet instead.

I've been reading a book by Dr Megan Rossi where she describes plant based as having a diet that mostly consists of food derived from plants. People still eat other foods like eggs or meat but make a decision to eat more plant based foods.

It could also be a good label for people who are fine with things like gelatine or rennet but prefer not to eat meat or fish. Think back to when Burger King released the impossible whopper. It was plant based but because it was cooked on the grill, it wasn't vegetarian or vegan (I still ate one and loved it after years without eating fast food).

Thanks all, yes of course! All of your comments make complete sense.
I should have thought about it a bit more.

I would say that plant based literally means that your diet is based around plants but is not as dogmatic as veganism - e.g. you eats lots of vegetables, lentils and plant based foods but occasionally eat meat, fish and dairy products. Veganism, on the other hand, also considers non-food products like make-up, beauty products, leather etc.