Plant-Based Diets-Environmental Benefits but Better Awareness Needed to Prevent Future Micronutrient Shortcomings

Abstract

The movement towards plant-based diets has garnered increased attention among healthcare and public sectors in recent years [1]. In 2019 the EAT-Lancet Commission published “Food in the Anthropocene” highlighting the need for food systems to support environmental sustainability and nurture human health with fundamental dietary changes, including a shift towards plant-based diets [2]. Such recommendations are highly commendable and, in fact, are not a new concept – rather an old-new trend in nutrition [3]. Many early human food cultures were plantbased along with the Greek philosopher Pythagoras who was considered the “father of ethical vegetarianism”-a trend which more or less disappeared from Europe during the Middle Ages but has since re-emerged – mainly for health, ecological and ethical reasons [4].