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The Great Plant-Based Con: Why eating a plants-only diet won't improve your health or save the planet
Plant-based is best for health, go vegan to help save the planet, eat less meat... Almost every day we are bombarded with the seemingly incontrovertible message that we must reduce our consumption of meat and dairy - or eliminate them from our diets altogether.
But what if the pervasive message that the plant-based diet will improve our health and save the planet is misleading - or even false? What if removing animal foods from our diet is a serious threat to human health, and a red herring in the fight against climate change.
In THE GREAT PLANT-BASED CON, Jayne Buxton demonstrates that each of these 'what-ifs' is, in fact, a reality. Drawing on the work of numerous health experts and researchers, she uncovers how the separate efforts of a constellation of individuals, companies and organisations are leading us down a dietary road that will have severe repercussions for our health and wellbeing, and for the future of the planet.
THE GREAT PLANT-BASED CON is neither anti-plant nor anti-vegan - it is a call for us to take an honest look at the facts about human diets and their effect on the environment. Shocking and eye-opening, this book outlines everything you need to know to make more informed decisions about the food you choose to eat.
But what if the pervasive message that the plant-based diet will improve our health and save the planet is misleading - or even false? What if removing animal foods from our diet is a serious threat to human health, and a red herring in the fight against climate change.
In THE GREAT PLANT-BASED CON, Jayne Buxton demonstrates that each of these 'what-ifs' is, in fact, a reality. Drawing on the work of numerous health experts and researchers, she uncovers how the separate efforts of a constellation of individuals, companies and organisations are leading us down a dietary road that will have severe repercussions for our health and wellbeing, and for the future of the planet.
THE GREAT PLANT-BASED CON is neither anti-plant nor anti-vegan - it is a call for us to take an honest look at the facts about human diets and their effect on the environment. Shocking and eye-opening, this book outlines everything you need to know to make more informed decisions about the food you choose to eat.
544 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2022
242 people are currently reading
708 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 74 reviews
August 16, 2022
This book only highlights the danger of having a non qualified person preach about diet and health. The science and facts are cherry picked and the 'scientists' that back her up are again chosen for the reason their view suits her arguments. The author continually ignores the moral argument and the wider environmental argument. This book will only make people feel better in the way certain 'scientist's' made smokers feel better by arguing science shows smoking is not harmful and more recently the scientists who bend truths and ignore facts to claim global warming is not real.
August 9, 2022
This book was entertaining to read, but it was obviously written by someone who doesn't know much about science, nutrition, climate and or health. The things that bothered me the most was that she kept on calling pro plant based studies as "weak epidemiology", while providing mostly observational studies to prove her cause. Many of the "experts" she cites (many anecdotal... That's even worse than epidemiology?) are well known contrarians (keto and carnivore diet acolytes, some even well known conspiracy theorists) who sometimes even lie about their credentials.
Another pet peeve of mine is providing no sources, they can be found at an external link(meaning that less people will look them up) and are often "weak epidemiology" studies done with questionnaires(the author seems to have a problem with them when these studies are pro plant based) and Twitter tweets. She does give a "recommended reading" list and guess what.. it's only Shawn Baker and Paul Saladino stuff🥲
In part three it goes full on conspiracy mode and there are two pages only on the ethics of animal consumption, the argument boils down to "but crop deaths tho".
A funny part to me was that most people reading this book will be carnivore dietists and anti vegans and the book says on multiple occasions that it's better to eat vegetarian instead of factory farmed animals or eating meat at a restaurant.
All with all, entertaining and i got two average arguments from it, the rest was just not good.
Ow one more thing, i like to believe the author has good intentions.
Another pet peeve of mine is providing no sources, they can be found at an external link(meaning that less people will look them up) and are often "weak epidemiology" studies done with questionnaires(the author seems to have a problem with them when these studies are pro plant based) and Twitter tweets. She does give a "recommended reading" list and guess what.. it's only Shawn Baker and Paul Saladino stuff🥲
In part three it goes full on conspiracy mode and there are two pages only on the ethics of animal consumption, the argument boils down to "but crop deaths tho".
A funny part to me was that most people reading this book will be carnivore dietists and anti vegans and the book says on multiple occasions that it's better to eat vegetarian instead of factory farmed animals or eating meat at a restaurant.
All with all, entertaining and i got two average arguments from it, the rest was just not good.
Ow one more thing, i like to believe the author has good intentions.
August 2, 2022
Imagine going to that much effort to try and put people off the most ethical lifestyle. It’s sad really.
August 27, 2022
Biased quackery.
October 13, 2022
A highly inconsistent manifesto. The author (who is not a scientist), after (I would say rightly) dismissing epidemiological evidence against eating animal fat, then goes on to quote lots of anecdotal evidence & self-monitored experiments to build a case for meat. One could easily write a book in the same style with the exact opposite message, cherry-picking different sources.
The end notes are not at the end of the book but on a website - a highly unusual & somewhat alarming approach which I can’t help thinking is used to discourage readers from checking them.
In short: I don’t think the author has done her case a service with this book.
The end notes are not at the end of the book but on a website - a highly unusual & somewhat alarming approach which I can’t help thinking is used to discourage readers from checking them.
In short: I don’t think the author has done her case a service with this book.
October 6, 2022
Pure unscientific trash. Oh and the author is a total fraud; getting funding by the meat industry.
May 15, 2024
What is very important to take from this book- support local farmers (meateater or not), eat with the seasons if possible. There are many good points in this book- bioavailability, genetic makeup, cost of monocrops, transport, factory farming, climate change. It does go very deep into some subjects, some chapters might interest you more, some less. This book is for people interested in nature, food and nutrition. Its about back to basics. Voice of reason in crazy world we live now in.
Here ends my review. Rest is just a rant after reading some other "reviews"...
Read the book, use critical thinking skills (put emotions on side) and make your own opinion. Question everything and do your own research. See what conclusions you reach.
This book is not about ethics of killing animals for food. There's nothing ethical about killing. But life is not fair, we can at least make sure animals had good life and quick death. So choose your source of meat wisely.
It seems like review section here got riddled with "I'm very open minded, and btw I'm raving vegan" one star reviews. I don't think some of those people even read the book (or people liking those reviews). If they have, they would give it at least 2 or 3 stars, even being vegan.
Saying this book is biased and cherry pick the science... Have you read any vegan books? Vegans are way better at it. They could teach a course on how to sale bullshit to masses. The China Study book, widely discredited, have cult following and I believe 5 star rating? For a cherry picked results to prove a point, discarding and not counting any other factors.
Dear vegans, your bananas, avocados, plant based milks are often coming with way higher cost of farming and climate change (transport, packaging, chemicals to slow down spoil) than local produce. It might be easy to go meatless in warm countries, but cold climat is not so forgiving, winter time is when meat, root and fermented vegetables are very important. So if you can recommend me a book, where- with no cherry picked science- veganism is proven to be superior way of eating for health, please do. Im not interested in ethics, just science.
Here ends my review. Rest is just a rant after reading some other "reviews"...
Read the book, use critical thinking skills (put emotions on side) and make your own opinion. Question everything and do your own research. See what conclusions you reach.
This book is not about ethics of killing animals for food. There's nothing ethical about killing. But life is not fair, we can at least make sure animals had good life and quick death. So choose your source of meat wisely.
It seems like review section here got riddled with "I'm very open minded, and btw I'm raving vegan" one star reviews. I don't think some of those people even read the book (or people liking those reviews). If they have, they would give it at least 2 or 3 stars, even being vegan.
Saying this book is biased and cherry pick the science... Have you read any vegan books? Vegans are way better at it. They could teach a course on how to sale bullshit to masses. The China Study book, widely discredited, have cult following and I believe 5 star rating? For a cherry picked results to prove a point, discarding and not counting any other factors.
Dear vegans, your bananas, avocados, plant based milks are often coming with way higher cost of farming and climate change (transport, packaging, chemicals to slow down spoil) than local produce. It might be easy to go meatless in warm countries, but cold climat is not so forgiving, winter time is when meat, root and fermented vegetables are very important. So if you can recommend me a book, where- with no cherry picked science- veganism is proven to be superior way of eating for health, please do. Im not interested in ethics, just science.
October 16, 2022
It's pretty obvious this book will ruffle quite a few feathers which is evident in some reviews here. For me it not only helped to find some puzzle pieces but expanded that puzzle to an enormous size. At times I felt quite overwhelmed by all the data but also intrigued to dig deeper (and yes, I have downloaded the whole 72 pages long reference file and intend to look at sources she's used at my own pace). I wish it had some graphs (I retain information better in visual format) especially in last chapters when she was talking about the connections between some individuals, church, corporations, government committees and guidelines that have been imposed on general public. I definitely got lost there and will have to reread it and draw those myself. Though quite a lot of information on nutrition was known to me beforehand, I found chapters on regenerative farming and soil health fascinating and now have a list of books on that interest as long as my arm.
In short this books is impressively researched but a bit dry read that will keep me thinking for years to come.
In short this books is impressively researched but a bit dry read that will keep me thinking for years to come.
Read
November 2, 2022no stars
i am only a short way into this and am not going to finish it.
the author's research is highly questionable as are her research sources.
prior to arriving at my decision, i checked out the author's twitter feed and got a much better understanding of her personal agenda and the places she looks to confirm it. the bias is strong and undeclared.
buh-bye.
i am only a short way into this and am not going to finish it.
the author's research is highly questionable as are her research sources.
prior to arriving at my decision, i checked out the author's twitter feed and got a much better understanding of her personal agenda and the places she looks to confirm it. the bias is strong and undeclared.
buh-bye.
June 11, 2022
Challenges the 'plant-biased' narrative. Buxton alerts the readers that plant-based is not based on science.
She looks into the vested interests and religious ideology shaping the plant-based narrative.
She looks into the vested interests and religious ideology shaping the plant-based narrative.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 29, 2022
What a garbage read
July 10, 2022
a must read book for everyone concerned about their health.
October 25, 2022
I recommend “This is Vegan Propaganda” for more nuance on this subject. https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5...
December 7, 2022
Garbage
July 21, 2025
A brilliant book that should be in every school.
Lost of people will disagree with this as they are caught in the old paradigm of 'fat is bad' and 'cholesterol is bad' and 'carbs are good'. All wrong!
The scientist are world class leaders in their respective fields, and know what they are talking about.
Having followed a Paleo, now progressing into a Keto and high meat diet, my health is 500 percent better than when I was in my twenties and thirties as a vegetarian.
Back then I was on multiple medications and getting sicker and sicker with doctors trying to foist more meds down my throat.
Modern allopathic medic only treats the symptoms and does not tackle the disease.
In the mid 80s, I followed the advice in "Diet for a small planet" and still have repercussions from it.
My advice
N=1
Learn from this book.
Stop following the bullshit advise dished out by the government agencies, the AHA and Diabetes foundations and the media.
These agencies are nothing more than political or self aggrandising, and the media rarely reports accurately.
Seriously look where we are at, after 50 years of following their advise.
Preventable diseases running rampant, Diabetes overwhelming the health systems, a huge proportions of obese people, all thanks to current thinkings 'nutrition wisdom'.
Medicine and nutrition are making a turn for the better, and this book is a fantastic starting point.
There is nothing in this book that is not backed by good scienc
---------
A thought experiment for you...
We as a species, thrived on meat.
Many posit it is what gave us our big brains and intelligence.
(Paleoanthropology proves this and you can check it out if you do not believe me.)
Up until 100 years ago, whilst we were eating a lot of meat...
cancer, diabetes, obese people, CVD and CHD we're pretty rare.
So, how could meat consumption cause these diseases to proliferate now.
Lost of people will disagree with this as they are caught in the old paradigm of 'fat is bad' and 'cholesterol is bad' and 'carbs are good'. All wrong!
The scientist are world class leaders in their respective fields, and know what they are talking about.
Having followed a Paleo, now progressing into a Keto and high meat diet, my health is 500 percent better than when I was in my twenties and thirties as a vegetarian.
Back then I was on multiple medications and getting sicker and sicker with doctors trying to foist more meds down my throat.
Modern allopathic medic only treats the symptoms and does not tackle the disease.
In the mid 80s, I followed the advice in "Diet for a small planet" and still have repercussions from it.
My advice
N=1
Learn from this book.
Stop following the bullshit advise dished out by the government agencies, the AHA and Diabetes foundations and the media.
These agencies are nothing more than political or self aggrandising, and the media rarely reports accurately.
Seriously look where we are at, after 50 years of following their advise.
Preventable diseases running rampant, Diabetes overwhelming the health systems, a huge proportions of obese people, all thanks to current thinkings 'nutrition wisdom'.
Medicine and nutrition are making a turn for the better, and this book is a fantastic starting point.
There is nothing in this book that is not backed by good scienc
---------
A thought experiment for you...
We as a species, thrived on meat.
Many posit it is what gave us our big brains and intelligence.
(Paleoanthropology proves this and you can check it out if you do not believe me.)
Up until 100 years ago, whilst we were eating a lot of meat...
cancer, diabetes, obese people, CVD and CHD we're pretty rare.
So, how could meat consumption cause these diseases to proliferate now.
August 17, 2025
I remember reading Lierre Keith's (20 year vegan) book and although it was quite emotional, she asked some very good questions that will get you thinking. My very old review is here: https://readandsurvive.com/2019/01/13...
Buxton has a good approach to writing this. She has explained why she's choosing the word con and at the end she doesn't vilify plant based eating, just how much effort you'd need to put in.
I think this is a very well researched book. I mean go to Argentina. You will see hectares of land burned by soy crops. Nothing grows there for years. That comes at huge cist to biodiversity. Similarly in the book, Buxton mentions rice and how any soil needs blood.
I also much enjoyed that she's not really advocating any diets here. Keto is good in my experience but might not work for everyone. Eating greens might not work for everyone. Or limiting carbs too much.
Buxton has a good approach to writing this. She has explained why she's choosing the word con and at the end she doesn't vilify plant based eating, just how much effort you'd need to put in.
I think this is a very well researched book. I mean go to Argentina. You will see hectares of land burned by soy crops. Nothing grows there for years. That comes at huge cist to biodiversity. Similarly in the book, Buxton mentions rice and how any soil needs blood.
I also much enjoyed that she's not really advocating any diets here. Keto is good in my experience but might not work for everyone. Eating greens might not work for everyone. Or limiting carbs too much.
June 23, 2022
An excellently researched and written book outlining the pitfalls of following the current trend of eating only a plant based diet which contrary to fashionable opinion being pushed by billionaires such as George Monbiot and Bill Gates (who have invested billions in their fake meat mass produced "food") is actually NOT the answer to tackle world problems such as climatic change and world hunger. Do read!
November 27, 2023
I saw this at the bookstore, and was thinking that it would be good to challenge the currently popular ideas about plant-based eating, but the book itself was a massive disappointment.
Highly dubious claims made, not backed up, a very strange mix of supporting cast (including a naturopath, Jordan Peterson, and Joe Rogan), constant references to random websites by random people who are supporting the interpretation the author is trying to show, but without actually presenting the arguments, or evidence, and without actually showing why those are better than the similar sources that vegans/plant-based advocates could bring.
But what is the most frustrating is how the writing ranges from condescending patronizing to technobabble completely incomprehensible to laymen. I am at a complete loss as to who the target audience was supposed to be. At points it seems it is geared to the laymen, end consumer, at others it seems geared at farmers, and at other times at industry insiders. Very confusing, but also annoying because of how impenetrable the writing is.
Highly dubious claims made, not backed up, a very strange mix of supporting cast (including a naturopath, Jordan Peterson, and Joe Rogan), constant references to random websites by random people who are supporting the interpretation the author is trying to show, but without actually presenting the arguments, or evidence, and without actually showing why those are better than the similar sources that vegans/plant-based advocates could bring.
But what is the most frustrating is how the writing ranges from condescending patronizing to technobabble completely incomprehensible to laymen. I am at a complete loss as to who the target audience was supposed to be. At points it seems it is geared to the laymen, end consumer, at others it seems geared at farmers, and at other times at industry insiders. Very confusing, but also annoying because of how impenetrable the writing is.
December 19, 2022
An excellent all-encompassing book on the subject, clearly the author has dedicated a lot of time on research. Quoted are some of the most esteemed books of the field, like The Big Fat Surprise, The Vegetarian Myth, Nutrition and Physical Degeneration, Gary Taubes' books and many more books and
research articles. The structure is clear, every statement made has a corresponding note that points to actual research papers and scientific references. The appendix and bibliography are impeccable and quite extensive, a great starting point to delve deeper into the matter.
Definitely not for people who find themselves lacking in reading comprehension and patience though.
research articles. The structure is clear, every statement made has a corresponding note that points to actual research papers and scientific references. The appendix and bibliography are impeccable and quite extensive, a great starting point to delve deeper into the matter.
Definitely not for people who find themselves lacking in reading comprehension and patience though.
October 26, 2022
Pretty clear bias/agenda, which is painful at times. On the flipside, makes a decent case for why the harms of eating meat have been exaggerated (with regards to health and environment, ethics is not covered).
November 11, 2022
There aren't many books could change your life. This is one.
Unlike some reviewers, I have never been a food faddist or a vegetarian or a vegan. I always thought 'how silly'. But at the same time I thought 'fat is bad' and 'cholesterol is bad' and 'carbs are good' – for no better reason than we're always being told to eat '5 a day'. I simply assumed that these were established scientific facts. I also swallowed apparently sound claims that farming for meat had to be curtailed to stop global warming.
But we've been lied to!
I have a degree in chemistry. I have also engaged in survey research for a working lifetime. So I can distinguish good research from bad. And I know very well how research, especially survey-based research, can be manipulated to produce the answers that suit the argument. Jayne Buxton has made the effort to investigate and, in this book, to demolish the case for “plant-based” diets – based, as it is, on weak, misrepresented or often non-existent evidence. Here are some of the key points:
Vegan diets have to have chemicals added because humans will die if fed only vegetable matter.
It's sugar/carbohydrates that make you fat. Not the saturated fat in your food.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, with 20 million members and the biggest educator in the world after the Catholic Church, teaches that God ordains plant-based “Garden of Eden” diets. It has packed apparently independent bodies with members and supporters in order to promote veganism. These include e.g. the International Union of Nutrition Sciences and the committee that devised Britain's 'Eatwell Guide'.
Big business supports the whole vegetarian/vegan scam because they manufacture highly-processed foods based mainly on carbohydrates and stand to profit enormously from imitation meat products such as veggie burgers.
Far from helping to counteract global warming and improving the environment, replacing meat in the world's diet will make things worse. When grass-fed animals exhale methane and carbon dioxide, they are merely returning carbon obtained originally from the air (via the plants they eat), and most of the water they require comes from rain falling on pasture. Whereas industrial farming of arable crops, directly and indirectly, has much greater environmental impacts.
In my case, I shall not change my diet very much. I'll buy blue-cap (2%) milk rather than green. And I'll not worry about eating red meat or the % saturated fat content listed on jar labels. But I'll not hesitate to let my veggie relatives know what I now think, rather than leaving them to carry on believing the nonsense that I too used to accept.
Unlike some reviewers, I have never been a food faddist or a vegetarian or a vegan. I always thought 'how silly'. But at the same time I thought 'fat is bad' and 'cholesterol is bad' and 'carbs are good' – for no better reason than we're always being told to eat '5 a day'. I simply assumed that these were established scientific facts. I also swallowed apparently sound claims that farming for meat had to be curtailed to stop global warming.
But we've been lied to!
I have a degree in chemistry. I have also engaged in survey research for a working lifetime. So I can distinguish good research from bad. And I know very well how research, especially survey-based research, can be manipulated to produce the answers that suit the argument. Jayne Buxton has made the effort to investigate and, in this book, to demolish the case for “plant-based” diets – based, as it is, on weak, misrepresented or often non-existent evidence. Here are some of the key points:
Vegan diets have to have chemicals added because humans will die if fed only vegetable matter.
It's sugar/carbohydrates that make you fat. Not the saturated fat in your food.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, with 20 million members and the biggest educator in the world after the Catholic Church, teaches that God ordains plant-based “Garden of Eden” diets. It has packed apparently independent bodies with members and supporters in order to promote veganism. These include e.g. the International Union of Nutrition Sciences and the committee that devised Britain's 'Eatwell Guide'.
Big business supports the whole vegetarian/vegan scam because they manufacture highly-processed foods based mainly on carbohydrates and stand to profit enormously from imitation meat products such as veggie burgers.
Far from helping to counteract global warming and improving the environment, replacing meat in the world's diet will make things worse. When grass-fed animals exhale methane and carbon dioxide, they are merely returning carbon obtained originally from the air (via the plants they eat), and most of the water they require comes from rain falling on pasture. Whereas industrial farming of arable crops, directly and indirectly, has much greater environmental impacts.
In my case, I shall not change my diet very much. I'll buy blue-cap (2%) milk rather than green. And I'll not worry about eating red meat or the % saturated fat content listed on jar labels. But I'll not hesitate to let my veggie relatives know what I now think, rather than leaving them to carry on believing the nonsense that I too used to accept.
April 13, 2023
Well researched (over 1000 sources) and thorough. I love the focus on regenerative farming and soil health. I read this book from cover to cover and headed over to her resource page (listed on the website for the book) and dove into those as well. I’ve read several of the books she referenced (I highly recommend “The Big Fat Surprise” by Nina Teicholz) and I recommend anyone wanting to dive deeper into this topic to use her sources as a guide. She bases her arguments on evidence based research and really gets into the nitty gritty as to how a lot of the plant-based advocates skew the numbers in their favor, sometimes grossly misrepresenting the data in order to push their plant-based agenda. She also talks about the who, what, and why around the plant-based narrative. I highly recommend this book.
I noticed when scrolling through the reviews for this book on Goodreads that there are a lot of one star reviews from people that didn’t even read the book and/or are very clearly rabidly vegan/vegetarian. I would not, and did not, take those reviews seriously because they are clearly biased. Look, what this author is trying to do is lay out a nuanced argument for a healthy real food human diet, free from ultra processed foods, added sugar, and vegetable seed oils. Nowhere in this book is she trying to say that you shouldn’t eat plants. In fact, I would argue that she advocates for an omnivorous diet that leans more towards low-carb. She is trying to provide evidence-based information on meat, its production, and how cows and other animals actually promote carbon capture and soil health when raised in a regenerative context. She also shines a light on the seedy underbelly of the plant-based world, and dives into their motives, which are mostly monetary, but there are also some cultish religious aspects to it as well. If you follow the money, as she does, it leads you to some pretty messed up places.
All in all, great read and I highly recommend.
I noticed when scrolling through the reviews for this book on Goodreads that there are a lot of one star reviews from people that didn’t even read the book and/or are very clearly rabidly vegan/vegetarian. I would not, and did not, take those reviews seriously because they are clearly biased. Look, what this author is trying to do is lay out a nuanced argument for a healthy real food human diet, free from ultra processed foods, added sugar, and vegetable seed oils. Nowhere in this book is she trying to say that you shouldn’t eat plants. In fact, I would argue that she advocates for an omnivorous diet that leans more towards low-carb. She is trying to provide evidence-based information on meat, its production, and how cows and other animals actually promote carbon capture and soil health when raised in a regenerative context. She also shines a light on the seedy underbelly of the plant-based world, and dives into their motives, which are mostly monetary, but there are also some cultish religious aspects to it as well. If you follow the money, as she does, it leads you to some pretty messed up places.
All in all, great read and I highly recommend.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
December 15, 2022
I don't need to be convinced about LCHF (I not longer carry around 40kg of fat or have T2 diabetes, because of this,) a diet I've followed for over a decade, or about the lunacy of 'healthy' veganism.
I do need to be presented with consistent arguments though, and the author fails to give them. One minute, almonds and avos are the good guys, the next minute, they are the bad guys. Can't have it both ways.
The other issue is that the book strays waaaaaaaay off topic, making it longer than it needs to be, and the author finds herself on a soapbox around the half way point, rather than sticking to the facts. I find it intriguing that the author can do some investigation, and quickly uncover the lies about statins, saturated fat, healthy whole grains, and the other generally accepted dogma about diet, yet is quite happy to accept that somehow carbon dioxide is a poison, and that it is killing the planet.
I may have been able to struggle through the last six hours of a nineteen hour book, despite the problems noted above, but the narrator is
SO
BAD
AT
...
READING
it is painful. One, word, at, a, time, wears very thin very quickly. Pity, the book has plenty of good info. It is just poorly argued. The book mentions Taubes, Teicholz, Kendrick, Lustig, Perlmutter, Davis, and a few others. Read their books instead, because they are all better books, and they stay on topic.
I do need to be presented with consistent arguments though, and the author fails to give them. One minute, almonds and avos are the good guys, the next minute, they are the bad guys. Can't have it both ways.
The other issue is that the book strays waaaaaaaay off topic, making it longer than it needs to be, and the author finds herself on a soapbox around the half way point, rather than sticking to the facts. I find it intriguing that the author can do some investigation, and quickly uncover the lies about statins, saturated fat, healthy whole grains, and the other generally accepted dogma about diet, yet is quite happy to accept that somehow carbon dioxide is a poison, and that it is killing the planet.
I may have been able to struggle through the last six hours of a nineteen hour book, despite the problems noted above, but the narrator is
SO
BAD
AT
...
READING
it is painful. One, word, at, a, time, wears very thin very quickly. Pity, the book has plenty of good info. It is just poorly argued. The book mentions Taubes, Teicholz, Kendrick, Lustig, Perlmutter, Davis, and a few others. Read their books instead, because they are all better books, and they stay on topic.
April 8, 2023
Im Vegan for 6 years
Everything written in this book is massive bull…ap…
One may susspect the Autor of pushing meat propaganda (especially Cow Killers agenda)
If veg and fruit is supposed to be so bad then why oh why all our grandmothers, mothers and aunts say „eat your brocolli”
Last but not least: when I was meat eating 39 yo male I had blood cholesterol levels through the roof! Like 220
Now as 44yo and 6 years on plant based levels of total cholesterol well below upper limits of the norm!
I dont need „research” to know that I feel better man🙈
If you like flesh of killed animals thats hard but I have to accept it, but why talk to people they need to eat MORE meat?!? Is it not a BigMeat propaganda?
Lastly: I encourage everyone with CV problems to try plant based for a week! Once you see for yourself that you feel better and your blood results improve dramatically youll decide whether this book is genuine or just a lame attempt to reverse people to.The Dark Ages of gorging on poor animals dead carcasses…
GoVegan
Everything written in this book is massive bull…ap…
One may susspect the Autor of pushing meat propaganda (especially Cow Killers agenda)
If veg and fruit is supposed to be so bad then why oh why all our grandmothers, mothers and aunts say „eat your brocolli”
Last but not least: when I was meat eating 39 yo male I had blood cholesterol levels through the roof! Like 220
Now as 44yo and 6 years on plant based levels of total cholesterol well below upper limits of the norm!
I dont need „research” to know that I feel better man🙈
If you like flesh of killed animals thats hard but I have to accept it, but why talk to people they need to eat MORE meat?!? Is it not a BigMeat propaganda?
Lastly: I encourage everyone with CV problems to try plant based for a week! Once you see for yourself that you feel better and your blood results improve dramatically youll decide whether this book is genuine or just a lame attempt to reverse people to.The Dark Ages of gorging on poor animals dead carcasses…
GoVegan
August 23, 2023
The author, Jayne Buxton has a Masters degree in creative writing. This factual 'expose' is indeed a great piece of creative fiction. Jayme's arguments go against the conclusions of established thinkers, such as Sir David Attenborough. 'The planet can't support billions of meat-eaters,' especially ones demanding pasture-fed beef in every meal. Perhaps we can pasture feed them on Mars or other such planet. The selective 'reasoning' reminds you of climate change denial, and similarly represents a populist clickbait. This is also a very western-centric vision that most bizarrely conflates the long-established environmental and spiritual philosophies with the latest emergence of the niche market for processed plant-based food.
March 25, 2023
This and several other books and papers that I read convinced me to change to an omnivore (grass-fed and -finished) diet after 30 years as a vegetarian, since it seems most likely that it's better for my health and for the environment.
May 3, 2024
This is a comprehensive and well-researched book on the subject, as the book's 522 pages indicate. It proceeds in more or less the same spirit as "Sacred Cow"' and "Defending Beef"' and also occasionally refers to the two aforementioned books, which I also read before reading this one. In contrast to the two, this one has a lot more content and is not as compressed as the two books mentioned. In between, you can read yourself a bit blind in the various areas, e.g. there will be a great many companies and abbreviations to keep track of, which is also confirmed by the register of abbreviations on some of the last pages of the book. Sometimes the author moves into areas that are initially interesting, but which she does not always manage to keep equally interesting throughout the pages a particular sub-theme is strecthed. This applies especially when you have arrived approx. halfways through the book.
Apart from this, the book is interesting and exciting reading, some repetition from the two books mentioned, but also some newer approaches to the topic.
Jayne Buxton also refers to many authors and researchers that I myself know and have read books by, which of course is of great help when it comes to keeping interest in the book's content. The book could have been more meticulously aimed at the plant-based, because at times it moves a little beyond what is expected of a book with the title that this book bears, but in these cases she still does not forget the theme and constantly points out the relevance of what she writes to the subject itself. Although the threads are sometimes a bit loose, they are tightened and the book is ultimately a good work by someone who is probably not fully qualified in terms of education to write it, but refers in a good way to sources that I consider more or less to be reliable, even thou some will disagree.
I still think this one does not quite reach the standard of "Sacred Cow" and "Defending Beef". The book is well on its way, and can be a kind of extension to the books mentioned, although one can occasionally think about whether it really was necessary to write another book about this, especially considering that it was not so long before this one that the two others were published.
If you haven't read the two above-mentioned books, you can always benefit greatly from this one, and if you're a healthbookworm, you can also swallow this one while you're at it. This gets a weak four-star rating from me.
Apart from this, the book is interesting and exciting reading, some repetition from the two books mentioned, but also some newer approaches to the topic.
Jayne Buxton also refers to many authors and researchers that I myself know and have read books by, which of course is of great help when it comes to keeping interest in the book's content. The book could have been more meticulously aimed at the plant-based, because at times it moves a little beyond what is expected of a book with the title that this book bears, but in these cases she still does not forget the theme and constantly points out the relevance of what she writes to the subject itself. Although the threads are sometimes a bit loose, they are tightened and the book is ultimately a good work by someone who is probably not fully qualified in terms of education to write it, but refers in a good way to sources that I consider more or less to be reliable, even thou some will disagree.
I still think this one does not quite reach the standard of "Sacred Cow" and "Defending Beef". The book is well on its way, and can be a kind of extension to the books mentioned, although one can occasionally think about whether it really was necessary to write another book about this, especially considering that it was not so long before this one that the two others were published.
If you haven't read the two above-mentioned books, you can always benefit greatly from this one, and if you're a healthbookworm, you can also swallow this one while you're at it. This gets a weak four-star rating from me.
December 4, 2023
We live in a polarised world. We see that paradigm of polarity writ large in the fractious debate around the consumption of animal sourced foodstuffs.
Once upon a time there were vegetarians who cut meat from their diets but continued to eat dairy and eggs. Then the vegan movement gathered pace and vegetarianism was looked on by hard core vegans as slacking. And in recent years the term, ‘plant based’ has become ubiquitous. Helpfully vague and fashionably green it is something that both vegans and veggies can subscribe to. For food processors and retailers it is a gift. The only threat to the term as a badge of honour, it would seem, is over exposure.
Jayne Buxton shows clearly where she stands in the debate by calling her book ‘The Great Plant-Based Con’. I’m sure more emollient titles were discussed, but perhaps they wouldn’t have done justice to the nature of the debate. It is instructive that many reviews on Goodreads give the GP-BC either a 1 star or 5 star review. As I gave it a 5 you can guess where I am coming from!
Having acknowledged my bias, I want to suggest that this is a book that very much needed to be written. Buxton refers to the fair wind that is behind the plant-based narrative as the ‘plant-based zeitgeist’ and it certainly feels like that. But all zeitgeists need to be challenged, rather than being accepted at face value, before they turn into something more problematic. So, for advocates and sceptics alike this is a must read and raises hard questions that need answers.
The book is very well written and marshals a lot of evidence with clarity and conviction. Personally, I think it was a mistake not to include the footnotes within the book, but that would have made it a very long book indeed. Having an interest in this subject, I checked through the references provided on-line and there is nothing to hide, in fact there were several excellent rabbit holes that I disappeared down from time to time!
The book is structured in 4 helpful parts
Part One – Is the plant-based diet better for your health?
Part Two – Will a plant-based diet save the planet?
Part Three – Who is advocating for the plant-based diet?
Part Four – How should we eat?
My understanding of veganism is that, at heart, it is a moral choice, a decision to not exploit sentient animals in any way, not to slaughter and eat them and not to consume anything they produce. Many vegans are understandably passionate about their way of life. However, the vast majority of the world’s population has remained steadfastly omnivore, eating a balanced diet of both animal sourced and plant sourced foods.
But now those who advocate a plant-based diet have added to the vegan moral argument a further two reasons to try and persuade human beings across the planet to ditch meat in favour of plant-based. Those two reasons are health and climate. It is these two arguments that Jayne Buxton systematically dismantles in the opening two parts of the book.
Part One: Is the plant-based diet better for your health? Buxton begins with the well known work of Ancel Keys in America and the rise in significance of Epidemiological Studies using food frequency questionnaires. Such studies can at best show association but not causation. Any evidence for health risks being linked to a particular food is, therefore, tentative at best and mischievous at worst. Perhaps this is the reason that so many studies appear to contradict one another. In fact, if you were to be cynical you could say that it’s possible to pay your money and construct a trial that will give the results you require!
That is certainly what happens when it comes to the headlines when these studies are reported. Accompanying a study there is often a press release that ensures the articles written about the study will report what the study’s funders and academics want them to report. Most journalists will simply not have time to read a technical report extending to many pages. This is what happened with a report published by The Journal of the American Heart Association in February 2021. The Mail Online headline screamed, “High Protein Vegan Diet Can Slash The Risk Of Early Death In Older Women By Almost 50%” However what the report actually said was, “After adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, dietary and lifestyle factors, and baseline and family history of diseases, animal protein intake was not associated with all-cause or cause-specific mortality, comparing the highest with the lowest quintile.” Quite a disconnect between headline and article!
Part Two: Will a plant-based diet save the planet? So much of the so-called evidence for meat production damaging the climate can be linked to the Poore and Nemecek 2018 study. It is repeatedly quoted and referenced. Buxton suggests that Joseph Poore, far from being an objective academic, is someone with an emotional investment in veganism. She then goes on to list the reasons why this and other such studies are flawed: “In addition to conflating reductions in individuals’ food emissions with reductions in total emissions, plant based advocates and the media that gives them a voice contribute to a misrepresentation of the emissions story in five important ways: exaggerating total emissions from animal foods; neglecting to account for the carbon sequestration effect of livestock farming; misrepresenting the difference between methane and CO2; disregarding nutritional considerations; and treating the outcomes of some studies as though they were definitive and incontrovertible.”
And, of course, we will have to continue to feed a growing population. If we are reducing or eliminating animal-based foods, nutrition, particularly protein, will need to come from elsewhere. ‘Plant-based’ processors and manufacturers are queuing up to fill that role, but are somewhat cagey about what the emissions of their factory produced products look like. Even Marco Springmann, one of the plant-based ‘high priests’ has said, “Beyond and Impossible (Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods) need to better assess their carbon footprint. These companies make claims about sustainability that they do not sufficiently back up with data.”
Part Three: Who is advocating for the plant-based diet and why. This is perhaps the most worrying section of the book revealing much string pulling behind the scenes by big food, big ag and big pharma, the mega companies with global spread who stand to do very nicely out of controlling the narrative and steering the zeitgeist. Buxton reveals a Pandora’s box (and alphabet soup) of dodgy dealing and corporate control. She is particularly scathing of the EAT Lancet Planetary diet and those behind it, saying, “…this near vegan diet that, by the commission’s own admission, is not appropriate for the young, the old, the sick, the frail, the malnourished or pregnant women, and which fails – in the eyes of so many – to take into account environmental and agricultural realities.”
The problem for the large food companies is that there is little money for them to be made out of fresh food that goes straight from farm to fork. What they want is to be able to take farm produced commodities in large quantities that can be processed and packaged into high value products on the supermarket shelf. Or, as Buxton says, “…the plant based revolution is essentially about adding value to cheap raw materials through ultra processing and charging premium prices for the end product.” And what’s more it legitimates the substitution of natural products with ultra-high processed ones, “…the [plant-based] movement has gifted to processed-food manufacturers a reason to produce more hyper-palatable high-carb processed foods. What's more, they'll be able to stick ‘heart healthy’ and ‘green’ labels on the packaging to make consumers feel good about buying them.”
The final part of the book ends on a positive note, calling for a balanced diet of whole foods. The question being, “..what foods are essential to human health and longevity, and can these foods now be produced in a way that minimises environmental harm and maximises environmental benefits.”
My concern about the plant-based zeitgeist is that it has become a Trojan Horse for veganism, an extreme diet that may work for a minority, but has to be supplemented, and for the majority of people, particularly at certain stages of life is worryingly inadequate. At the same time plant-based is also serving as a smokescreen for fossil fuel companies as people (young people in particular) absorb a message that suggests the best thing you can do for your health and the environment is eat less/no meat. That is clearly not the case, and I am grateful to Jayne Buxton for daring to write this book, that challenges that narrative.
Once upon a time there were vegetarians who cut meat from their diets but continued to eat dairy and eggs. Then the vegan movement gathered pace and vegetarianism was looked on by hard core vegans as slacking. And in recent years the term, ‘plant based’ has become ubiquitous. Helpfully vague and fashionably green it is something that both vegans and veggies can subscribe to. For food processors and retailers it is a gift. The only threat to the term as a badge of honour, it would seem, is over exposure.
Jayne Buxton shows clearly where she stands in the debate by calling her book ‘The Great Plant-Based Con’. I’m sure more emollient titles were discussed, but perhaps they wouldn’t have done justice to the nature of the debate. It is instructive that many reviews on Goodreads give the GP-BC either a 1 star or 5 star review. As I gave it a 5 you can guess where I am coming from!
Having acknowledged my bias, I want to suggest that this is a book that very much needed to be written. Buxton refers to the fair wind that is behind the plant-based narrative as the ‘plant-based zeitgeist’ and it certainly feels like that. But all zeitgeists need to be challenged, rather than being accepted at face value, before they turn into something more problematic. So, for advocates and sceptics alike this is a must read and raises hard questions that need answers.
The book is very well written and marshals a lot of evidence with clarity and conviction. Personally, I think it was a mistake not to include the footnotes within the book, but that would have made it a very long book indeed. Having an interest in this subject, I checked through the references provided on-line and there is nothing to hide, in fact there were several excellent rabbit holes that I disappeared down from time to time!
The book is structured in 4 helpful parts
Part One – Is the plant-based diet better for your health?
Part Two – Will a plant-based diet save the planet?
Part Three – Who is advocating for the plant-based diet?
Part Four – How should we eat?
My understanding of veganism is that, at heart, it is a moral choice, a decision to not exploit sentient animals in any way, not to slaughter and eat them and not to consume anything they produce. Many vegans are understandably passionate about their way of life. However, the vast majority of the world’s population has remained steadfastly omnivore, eating a balanced diet of both animal sourced and plant sourced foods.
But now those who advocate a plant-based diet have added to the vegan moral argument a further two reasons to try and persuade human beings across the planet to ditch meat in favour of plant-based. Those two reasons are health and climate. It is these two arguments that Jayne Buxton systematically dismantles in the opening two parts of the book.
Part One: Is the plant-based diet better for your health? Buxton begins with the well known work of Ancel Keys in America and the rise in significance of Epidemiological Studies using food frequency questionnaires. Such studies can at best show association but not causation. Any evidence for health risks being linked to a particular food is, therefore, tentative at best and mischievous at worst. Perhaps this is the reason that so many studies appear to contradict one another. In fact, if you were to be cynical you could say that it’s possible to pay your money and construct a trial that will give the results you require!
That is certainly what happens when it comes to the headlines when these studies are reported. Accompanying a study there is often a press release that ensures the articles written about the study will report what the study’s funders and academics want them to report. Most journalists will simply not have time to read a technical report extending to many pages. This is what happened with a report published by The Journal of the American Heart Association in February 2021. The Mail Online headline screamed, “High Protein Vegan Diet Can Slash The Risk Of Early Death In Older Women By Almost 50%” However what the report actually said was, “After adjustment for age, race/ethnicity, socio-economic status, dietary and lifestyle factors, and baseline and family history of diseases, animal protein intake was not associated with all-cause or cause-specific mortality, comparing the highest with the lowest quintile.” Quite a disconnect between headline and article!
Part Two: Will a plant-based diet save the planet? So much of the so-called evidence for meat production damaging the climate can be linked to the Poore and Nemecek 2018 study. It is repeatedly quoted and referenced. Buxton suggests that Joseph Poore, far from being an objective academic, is someone with an emotional investment in veganism. She then goes on to list the reasons why this and other such studies are flawed: “In addition to conflating reductions in individuals’ food emissions with reductions in total emissions, plant based advocates and the media that gives them a voice contribute to a misrepresentation of the emissions story in five important ways: exaggerating total emissions from animal foods; neglecting to account for the carbon sequestration effect of livestock farming; misrepresenting the difference between methane and CO2; disregarding nutritional considerations; and treating the outcomes of some studies as though they were definitive and incontrovertible.”
And, of course, we will have to continue to feed a growing population. If we are reducing or eliminating animal-based foods, nutrition, particularly protein, will need to come from elsewhere. ‘Plant-based’ processors and manufacturers are queuing up to fill that role, but are somewhat cagey about what the emissions of their factory produced products look like. Even Marco Springmann, one of the plant-based ‘high priests’ has said, “Beyond and Impossible (Beyond Meat and Impossible Foods) need to better assess their carbon footprint. These companies make claims about sustainability that they do not sufficiently back up with data.”
Part Three: Who is advocating for the plant-based diet and why. This is perhaps the most worrying section of the book revealing much string pulling behind the scenes by big food, big ag and big pharma, the mega companies with global spread who stand to do very nicely out of controlling the narrative and steering the zeitgeist. Buxton reveals a Pandora’s box (and alphabet soup) of dodgy dealing and corporate control. She is particularly scathing of the EAT Lancet Planetary diet and those behind it, saying, “…this near vegan diet that, by the commission’s own admission, is not appropriate for the young, the old, the sick, the frail, the malnourished or pregnant women, and which fails – in the eyes of so many – to take into account environmental and agricultural realities.”
The problem for the large food companies is that there is little money for them to be made out of fresh food that goes straight from farm to fork. What they want is to be able to take farm produced commodities in large quantities that can be processed and packaged into high value products on the supermarket shelf. Or, as Buxton says, “…the plant based revolution is essentially about adding value to cheap raw materials through ultra processing and charging premium prices for the end product.” And what’s more it legitimates the substitution of natural products with ultra-high processed ones, “…the [plant-based] movement has gifted to processed-food manufacturers a reason to produce more hyper-palatable high-carb processed foods. What's more, they'll be able to stick ‘heart healthy’ and ‘green’ labels on the packaging to make consumers feel good about buying them.”
The final part of the book ends on a positive note, calling for a balanced diet of whole foods. The question being, “..what foods are essential to human health and longevity, and can these foods now be produced in a way that minimises environmental harm and maximises environmental benefits.”
My concern about the plant-based zeitgeist is that it has become a Trojan Horse for veganism, an extreme diet that may work for a minority, but has to be supplemented, and for the majority of people, particularly at certain stages of life is worryingly inadequate. At the same time plant-based is also serving as a smokescreen for fossil fuel companies as people (young people in particular) absorb a message that suggests the best thing you can do for your health and the environment is eat less/no meat. That is clearly not the case, and I am grateful to Jayne Buxton for daring to write this book, that challenges that narrative.
October 9, 2023
I haven't read the book, but I have seen one review video from PlantChompers. He has studied earth science and is familiar with the scientific method and how studies are conducted and knows very well how to read scientific papers. He gave very good arguments and explained why this book is flawed. He is actually still very nice and humble about Jayne Buxton.
First Jayne Buxton is not at all specialized in the field of nutrition. She completed a master in creative writing which is completely different from the field of nutrition.So she has no knowledge to completely understand the papers she is reading. This is also a completely disrespect to scientists that are for decades studying in the field of nutrition.
Based on the examples in the video from PlantChompers it's clear that she is cherrypicking the papers and not completely understanding the context. She even takes some arguments from some scientists, while the scientists themselves have completely different perspectives than hers. What is also mind boggling is that she even cites a blog post from someone with 11 followers.
Based on the video it's very clear that this book is utter garbage and has no scientific backing. All sources are specifically chosen to fit her narrative.
Please ignore reading and buying this book. It will save you the time and frustration and trees in the process.
First Jayne Buxton is not at all specialized in the field of nutrition. She completed a master in creative writing which is completely different from the field of nutrition.So she has no knowledge to completely understand the papers she is reading. This is also a completely disrespect to scientists that are for decades studying in the field of nutrition.
Based on the examples in the video from PlantChompers it's clear that she is cherrypicking the papers and not completely understanding the context. She even takes some arguments from some scientists, while the scientists themselves have completely different perspectives than hers. What is also mind boggling is that she even cites a blog post from someone with 11 followers.
Based on the video it's very clear that this book is utter garbage and has no scientific backing. All sources are specifically chosen to fit her narrative.
Please ignore reading and buying this book. It will save you the time and frustration and trees in the process.
March 3, 2023
Excellent - easier to read than I expected on initial perusal. Very impressed with the level of research and balanced viewpoint regarding the scientific studies. After swaying from a standard diet to low carb to vegetarian, considering vegan, now back to wholefoods diet I can honestly say this one answered my remaining questions.
No doubt about it, veganism is NOT the answer, it has too many deficiencies in nutrients which are just not bio-available... and it points out what / when / why / which scientific research is accurate and which is not, and which is deliberately misleading or being used for political / commercial gains.
Interesting that many of the pro-vegans attack this book by criticising the author and her incredibly thorough research, rather than making rational comments on the content.
And if you disagree with her conclusion I really suggest you read this book from cover to cover before making any judgements.
Can highly recommend..
No doubt about it, veganism is NOT the answer, it has too many deficiencies in nutrients which are just not bio-available... and it points out what / when / why / which scientific research is accurate and which is not, and which is deliberately misleading or being used for political / commercial gains.
Interesting that many of the pro-vegans attack this book by criticising the author and her incredibly thorough research, rather than making rational comments on the content.
And if you disagree with her conclusion I really suggest you read this book from cover to cover before making any judgements.
Can highly recommend..
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