The Vegetarian Useful resource Group Weblog

February 10, 2025

Thanks for the chance to submit feedback on the Scientific Report of the 2025 Dietary Tips Advisory Committee.

The Vegetarian Useful resource Group (VRG) is an impartial non-profit group devoted to educating the general public on vegetarianism and the interrelated problems with well being, vitamin, setting, ethics, and world starvation. Our well being professionals, activists, and educators work with companies and people to result in wholesome adjustments in faculties, workplaces, and the group. Registered dietitians and physicians assist within the improvement of nutrition-related publications and reply questions in regards to the vegetarian and vegan food regimen. For the previous 31 years, we’ve got commissioned polls exploring vegetarian-related points, outcomes of which are sometimes utilized by researchers, the meals trade, and the media. Monetary help comes primarily from memberships and contributions.

We commend the Committee for his or her work and admire their makes an attempt to advertise extra plant sources of protein in addition to their dedication to having steerage be related to individuals with totally different wants.

Our feedback will focus totally on the vegetarian, together with vegan, inhabitants of america and those that steadily choose to eat vegan/vegetarian meals.

The newest polls commissioned by The Vegetarian Useful resource Group point out that 6% of the grownup and 5% of the kid/adolescent U.S. inhabitants “by no means eats meat, fish, seafood, or poultry” and thus can be categorised as vegetarian.^1,2 Roughly half of those grownup vegetarians and 40% of the kid/adolescent vegetarians “by no means eat meat, fish, seafood, poultry, dairy merchandise, or eggs” and thus can be categorised as vegan.^1,2 Desk 1 gives particulars in regards to the percentages of vegetarians and vegans in our most up-to-date surveys.

Our polls additionally point out {that a} substantial proportion of U.S. adults eat vegetarian, together with vegan meals. Roughly 63% of U.S. adults all the time, normally, or typically eat vegetarian (together with vegan) meals; 29% all the time, normally, or typically eat vegan meals.¹ Desk 2 gives particulars about consuming behaviors of U.S. adults.

As a company that serves as a useful resource for these selecting vegetarian or vegan diets, we’ve got usually referred to the Wholesome Vegetarian Dietary Sample that was launched within the 2015 Dietary Tips and was up to date within the 2020 Dietary Tips to incorporate patterns for ages 1 yr and older. It’s disconcerting to see that this sample not seems to be part of the latest Scientific Report apart from ages 12 by means of 23 months (Desk E.1.3).

Vegan and vegetarian dietary patterns are related to quite a few well being and environmental advantages.^3-6 Though the Scientific Report promotes use of extra plant-based meal and dietary suggestion choices, steerage appears to be missing for individuals who want to solely use plant sources of meals (vegan dietary sample) or who need to remove meat, fish, poultry, and seafood (lacto-ovo, lacto, or ovo vegetarians).

Whereas the Eat Wholesome Your Approach sample is described as “a single, inclusive dietary sample that gives flexibilities to help particular person wants and preferences,” it’s unclear to us how this sample meets the wants and preferences of those that select to keep away from animal merchandise and even those that don’t want to eat between 9.5 and 29.5 ounce equivalents of meat, poultry, and eggs on a weekly foundation (Desk E.1.2). The report alludes to “Dietary Sample Flexibilities” in Field D.10.1 the place flexibilities are described as “narrative recommendation round choices for assembly nutrient wants exterior of quantitative sample suggestions.” We’re hopeful that this narrative recommendation will embrace details about vegetarian and vegan consuming patterns however are involved in regards to the vagueness of the reason of Dietary Sample Flexibilities. As well as, many customers depend on tables, akin to Desk E.1.2 and won’t concentrate on any narrative recommendation in Dietary Tips 2025 associated to vegan and vegetarian dietary patterns. We suggest that Dietary Tips 2025 retains the Wholesome Vegetarian Dietary Sample that appeared within the 2015 and 2020 Dietary Tips.

Quite a lot of peer-reviewed research have been printed utilizing meals sample modeling that display that varied vegetarian, vegan, and near-vegetarian dietary patterns could be nutritionally enough throughout totally different phases of the life-cycle.^7-11 These research present wanted details about the adequacy of vegan and vegetarian dietary patterns however sadly don’t seem to have been included in or thought of for the Scientific Report.

The Scientific Report repeatedly indicated that there was inadequate knowledge to permit the event of a vegan dietary sample (Field D.10.2). This perceived lack of awareness ought to be addressed with help for analysis to be carried out on the meals selections of vegans (no meat, fish, poultry, dairy merchandise, eggs) in america. These outcomes ought to be used to tell meal patterns sooner or later. Equally, the Committee reported encountering challenges in buying knowledge for newer plant-based alternate options.¹² Updating info within the database used to develop dietary patterns to include further meals generally eaten by vegetarians, together with vegans, particularly fortified meals and replacements for animal-derived merchandise ought to be a precedence to help the work of future Scientific Committees.

We help the Committee’s suggestion to maneuver the Beans, Peas, and Lentils Subgroup from the Greens Meals Group to the Protein Meals Group to align with proof to incorporate extra plant-based protein meals. We additionally help the Committee’s suggestion to reorder the Protein Meals Subgroups to listing Beans, Peas, and Lentils first, adopted by Nuts, Seeds, and Soy Merchandise with Meats, Poultry, and Eggs listed final. This reordering communicates the significance of a larger deal with plant-based meals resulting from their well being advantages. Academic supplies developed in help of the 2025 Dietary Tips ought to promote larger use of plant-based protein sources.

Whereas the Scientific Report discusses a rise within the amount of Beans, Peas, and Lentils within the Eat Wholesome Your Approach sample, the rise is comparatively small as indicated in Desk 3. We observe that the best enhance is about 4/7 of an oz. equal (or about 2 tablespoons) extra per day. We help a bigger enhance within the variety of servings of beans, peas, and lentils due to the recognized well being advantages of this meals group. Customers of the 2025 Dietary Tips ought to be supplied with info on methods to scale back or remove meat, poultry, and eggs whereas growing servings of beans, peas, and lentils and nuts and soy meals.

As academic supplies are developed, we encourage the inclusion of extra choices to assist customers meet their wants for these vitamins which have been recognized as public well being issues resulting from underconsumption. For instance, though fortified soy milk is included within the dairy group, many customers won’t use 3 cups of fortified soy milk each day. We encourage offering different choices together with elevated use of leafy inexperienced greens, calcium-set tofu, and calcium-fortified meals along with soy milk, akin to different plant milks and orange juice, as sources of bioavailable calcium.

We help the Committee’s suggestion that future Committees think about analyzing the affiliation of ultra-processed meals with danger of weight problems, kind 2 diabetes, heart problems, most cancers, and cognitive decline. Moreover, we urge future Committees to develop and use a extra rigorous definition of ultra-processed meals. We’re involved that meals that could be eaten by vegetarians akin to plant milks and business veggie burgers are being categorised as ultra-processed meals.^13,14 Extremely-processed meals are regarded as being excessive in energy, salt, sugar, and fats and are sometimes related to being the meals we crave, regardless of having little to suggest them by way of vitamin. This hardly looks as if the right class for meals akin to plant milks or some manufacturers of veggie burgers. One research of ultra-processed meals discovered that your entire class of “meat alternate options” which included veggie sausages and burgers, tofu, tempeh, and TVP provided 0.2% of complete energy.¹⁵ With this small illustration, it’s unattainable to achieve conclusions in regards to the well being results of those meals in comparison with different meals generally categorised as ultra-processed.

Sincerely,

Reed Mangels, PhD, RD

Diet Advisor, The Vegetarian Useful resource Group

Charles Stahler                                                                     Debra Wasserman

Co-Director, The Vegetarian Useful resource Group               Co-Director, The Vegetarian Useful resource Group

References

1. Stahler C, Mangels R. What number of vegetarians and vegans are there? Vegetarian Useful resource Group. https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/CulturedMeatYouGov2022.pdf. 2022.
2. Stahler C, Mangels R. What number of youth within the U.S. are vegan? Vegetarian Useful resource Group. https://www.vrg.org/nutshell/Yougov2021youthteenwriteup.pdf. 2021.
3. Craig WJ, Mangels AR, Fresán U, et al. The Secure and Efficient Use of Plant-Based mostly Diets with Tips for Well being Professionals. Vitamins. 2021;13(11):4144. Revealed 2021 Nov 19. doi:10.3390/nu13114144
4. Springmann M. A multicriteria evaluation of meat and milk alternate options from dietary, well being, environmental, and value views. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2024;121(50):e2319010121.
5. Gibbs J, Cappuccio FP. Plant-Based mostly Dietary Patterns for Human and Planetary Well being. Vitamins. 2022;14(8).
6. Raj S, Visitor NS, Landry MJ, Mangels AR, Pawlak R, Rozga M. Vegetarian Dietary Patterns for Adults: A Place of the Academy of Diet and Dietetics. J Acad Nutr Eating regimen. Revealed on-line February 7, 2025. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2025.02.002.
7. Hess JM, Comeau ME, Smith JL, Swanson Ok, Anderson CM. Vegetarian Diets Throughout Being pregnant: With Supplementation, Ovo-Vegetarian, Lacto-Vegetarian, Vegan, and Pescatarian Diversifications of US Division of Agriculture Meals Patterns Can Be Nutritionally Sufficient. J Acad Nutr Eating regimen. 2025;125(2):204-216.e17. doi:10.1016/j.jand.2024.08.001
8. Hess JM, Comeau ME, Swanson Ok, Burbank M. Modeling Ovo-vegetarian, Lacto-vegetarian, Pescatarian, and Vegan USDA Meals Patterns and Assessing Nutrient Adequacy for Lactation amongst Grownup Females. Curr Dev Nutr. 2023;7(12):102034. Revealed 2023 Nov 20. doi:10.1016/j.cdnut.2023.102034
9. Hess JM, Comeau ME. Modeling lacto-vegetarian, pescatarian, and “pescavegan” USDA meals patterns and assessing nutrient adequacy for wholesome non-pregnant, non-lactating adults. Entrance Nutr. 2023;10:1113792. Revealed 2023 Feb 7. doi:10.3389/fnut.2023.1113792
10. Hess JM, Comeau ME. Utility of dairy-free vegetarian and vegan USDA meals sample fashions for non-pregnant, non-lactating wholesome adults. J Meals Sci. 2022;87(10):4703-4713. doi:10.1111/1750-3841.16314
11. Hess JM. Modeling Dairy-Free Vegetarian and Vegan USDA Meals Patterns for Nonpregnant, Nonlactating Adults. J Nutr. 2022;152(9):2097-2108. doi:10.1093/jn/nxac100
12. Taylor CA, Talegawkar SA, Fung T, et al. What are the implications for nutrient intakes when modifying the Protein Meals group and subgroup portions inside the Wholesome U.S.-Type Dietary Sample or Wholesome Vegetarian Dietary Sample? Meals Sample Modeling Report. U.S. Division of Agriculture, Meals and Diet Service, Middle for Diet Coverage and Promotion, Diet and Financial Evaluation Department; 2024. doi:https:/doi.org/10.52570/DGAC2025.FPM03.
13. Orlich MJ, Sabaté J, Mashchak A, et al. Extremely-processed meals consumption and animal-based meals consumption and mortality within the Adventist Well being Research-2. Am J Clin Nutr. 2022;115(6):1589-1601. doi:10.1093/ajcn/nqac043
14. Gehring J, Touvier M, Baudry J, et al. Consumption of ultra-processed meals by pesco-vegetarians, vegetarians, and vegans: associations with period and age at food regimen initiation. J Nutr. 2021;151(1):120-131.
15. Rauber F, Laura da Costa Louzada M, Chang Ok, et al. Implications of meals ultra-processing on cardiovascular danger contemplating plant origin meals: an evaluation of the UK Biobank cohort. Lancet Reg Well being Eur. 2024;43:100948. Revealed 2024 Jun 10. doi:10.1016/j.lanepe.2024.100948

Desk 1. Current Ballot Outcomes –Share of Adults, Kids, and Teenagers within the U.S. who’re Vegetarian or Vegan

^*Vegetarian outlined as “by no means eat meat, fish, seafood, poultry”; vegan outlined as “by no means eat meat, fish, seafood, poultry, dairy merchandise, eggs.”

These surveys have been carried out on-line inside america by YouGov on behalf of The Vegetarian Useful resource Group amongst 2,889 U.S. adults and amongst 1,002 U.S. 8-17-year-olds.

Desk 2. Current Ballot Outcomes –Share of Adults within the U.S. who Normally, Generally or All the time Eat Vegetarian or Vegan Meals ¹

This survey was carried out on-line inside america by YouGov on behalf of The Vegetarian Useful resource Group amongst 2,889 U.S. adults.

Desk 3. Quantities of Beans, Peas and Lentils Really useful within the 2020 Wholesome U.S.-Type Dietary Sample (HUSS) In comparison with the 2025 Eat Wholesome Your Approach Dietary Sample