The Case for a Plant-Centered Diet

August 21, 2006


©2006	CSPI

By Michael Greger, M.D.

For 35 years, the Center for Science in the Public Interest has been on the cutting edge of nutrition and food safety. The highly regarded nonprofit remains at the forefront of advocacy and policy change with its latest book, Six Arguments for a Greener Diet.

The center's Nutrition Action Healthletter—boasting the largest circulation of any nutrition publication in the world—has long explained how a plant-centered diet is a healthier diet. Now, the nonprofit group has shown how much healthier a plant-centered diet can be for the Earth and all its inhabitants.

Good Reasons To Go Green

In six meticulously researched arguments, the center encourages readers to reduce their consumption of foods made from animals, while increasing their intake of foods from plants.

1) Our health: Plant-based diets fight heart disease, stroke, diabetes and obesity, and play a role in cancer prevention.

2) Food safety: More than a thousand Americans die every year from food poisoning linked to eating meat (including poultry), dairy and egg products. Much of the blame falls on factory farming practices that crowd animals into cramped, stressful, unhygienic environments.

Six Arguments for
A Greener Diet
By Michael F. Jacobson, Ph.D., and the staff of the Center for Science in the Public Interest
(Center for Science in the Public Interest:
August 2006)

3) Environment: The Earth's health is compromised by soil erosion and pollution from animal manure and pesticide run-off.

4) Water usage: It takes a thousand gallons of irrigation water to produce a quarter pound of animal protein, according to the center's estimates.

5) Cleaner air: Research shows that switching to a plant-based diet may have a greater impact against global warming than switching to a hybrid electric vehicle.

6) Animal suffering: Routine mutilations, intensive confinement, inhumane transport and slaughter mark the lives and deaths of many of the animals raised for food in the United States.

This landmark book includes practical tips on transitioning toward a healthy plant-based diet and lists dozens of recommendations for policy reforms to lessen the negative effects of our national high-meat diet.

Any one of the six arguments could stand alone as ample justification for moving toward a plant-based diet. Put all of them together, and the case is simply overwhelming.

Factory Farmers Miss An Opportunity

In response to the book, the July 28, 2006 installment of the "industry use only" Issues Management Update reveals that the National Pork Board has teamed up with the National Cattlemen's Beef Association, Dairy Management Inc. and the American Egg Board to, in their words, "mitigate CSPI's negative messaging."

Instead, animal agribusiness industries should work alongside consumer advocates, environmentalists and animal protection groups to mitigate the very real damage they are wreaking on our collective health, the environment and animal welfare.

Michael Greger, M.D. is the director of public health and animal agriculture for The Humane Society of the United States.

E-MAIL THIS PAGE