Research

Macro partitioning

Adopting a healthful plant-based diet (high in whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, legumes; low in refined grains, sweets, sugar-sweetened beverages, and animal foods) is associated with favorable health outcomes, including reduced risk of obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and mortality.

To improve your health, focus on the quality of your plant-based foods. Prioritize whole grains, fruits, vegetables, nuts, and legumes while minimizing refined grains, sweets, and sugar-sweetened beverages. You do not need to eliminate animal products entirely to see benefits; simply increasing the quality of plant foods in your diet is associated with lower risks of obesity, heart disease, diabetes, and mortality.

ModerateSupportsMEDIUM confidence
Higher hPDI levels were associated with favorable health outcomes in 36% of comparisons (most often for obesity, mortality, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and psychiatric disorders)... Conversely, higher levels of the uPDI were associated with unfavorable health outcomes in 33% of comparisons
Richard M. Rosenfeld et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2023

Why this rating

The evidence is based on observational studies (cohort, cross-sectional, case-control) with large sample sizes, but lacks the causal inference of randomized controlled trials.

Source

Scoping review of the association of plant-based diet quality with health outcomes

Richard M. Rosenfeld et al. · Frontiers in Nutrition · 2023

DOI 10.3389/fnut.2023.1211535

narrative_reviewCited 30×
Read the paper
DOI resolved against Crossref · corpus check 2026-06-10

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