The Great Plant-Based Con cover art

The Great Plant-Based Con

Why Eating a Plants-Only Diet Won't Improve Your Health or Save the Planet

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The Great Plant-Based Con

By: Jayne Buxton
Narrated by: Laurel Lefkow
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About this listen

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.

2023, Guild of Food Writers Award - Investigative Food Work, Winner

©2021 Jayne Buxton (P)2021 Hachette Audio UK
Diets, Nutrition & Healthy Eating Fitness, Diet & Nutrition Health Vegan Plant-Based Diet Inspiring Nutrition

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Critic reviews

The most incredible book (Delia Smith)
How I have waited for this book! A much needed, fact-packed, lucidly argued demolition of pervasive, endlessly recycled, anti-animal source food propaganda, and a very welcome, closely argued, well-reasoned defence of our traditional omnivore diet (Joanna Blythman)
THE GREAT PLANT-BASED CON is persuasive, entertaining and well researched ... the book will help to alleviate the guilt many of us feel about our diets (Louise Eccles)
[A] forensic examination of the evidence ... Buxton is brilliant at reminding us of some basic statistical truths, ones that are usually forgotten these days ... It's refreshing to read a book which recognises that life is complicated (Mark Mason)
A calm, incisive dissection of veganism's salvationist claim to protect human health and the planet (John Lewis-Stempel)
THE GREAT PLANT-BASED CON is absolutely exceptional. When you've read works of Gary Taubes and Nina Teicholz, you'll need to add this to your essential reading list. I was ignorant of so much that is so elegantly explained (Professor Tim Noakes)
With incredible skill, Jayne Buxton captures the edifice of intellectual and cultural fraud behind today's mythology of the safety plant-based eating. Everyone needs this important and timely book (Sally K. Norton MPH, nutritional scientist and author of TOXIC SUPERFOODS)
Jayne Buxton's compelling read THE PLANT-BASED CON challenges the 'plant-biased' narrative sweeping across the globe and embedding itself into the very fabric of our society. Jayne takes a deep dive into the vested interests and religious ideology shaping the plant-based con, leaving no stone unturned ... I highly recommend this book! (Belinda Fettke, https://isupportgary.com)
All stars
Most relevant
If you are interested in...

Health and nutrition
Saving the planet
Or how big business affect government policy

Then this book is for you.

However if your food choices are driven by ideology then you should probably pass. The facts will just upset you.

A must read.

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I would recommend this book to all that are interested in their own health and that of the environment.
For many that have been swayed by the increasing loud messages of embracing a plant based diet, but are still not feeling the benefit or worried about the increasing number of processed products on our supermarket shelves, this the book for you.
I feel confident I am now on the right path.
Clearly read, easy to understand.

Excellent book

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I really enjoyed this book. The author gave a balanced well researched view on omnivore and plant based eating. She definitely debunked the go vegan to save the planet and your health. She made me even more determined to only eat pasture raised, free range animal protein.

A balanced view on the plant based diet

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At last I have a book that I can use to point the way when I hear the dogmatic plant based, “must not eat animals” constantly directed at omnivores.

I must admit I was holding my breath wondering if the author was going to cover the moral side of eating animals. The people who accuse omnivores for their cruelty and rant about not killing the beings that we share this planet with, seem to think that they have the right to use offensive language and can say anything they want. And Jayne does indeed cover that with facts that are not recognised or ignored by those people.

Yet these same people get so defensive if we carnivores say anything and claim our rights too. Yes! What about the small animals in the path of the combine harvester?

And then of course there is the argument about cow burps.

And last but by no means least, Jayne covers the damage being done to our health. I have been aware of the mistaken idea 40 years ago that all fat was bad. And I am old enough to have witnessed Obesity, Diabetes and cancer rates soaring as a result. Now in the 2020’s we have the idea that plant based diets are the way to go.

But I’m not holding my breath. And I don’t think I’ll be around to see the results in bad health another twenty, thirty or forty years time.

Thank you Jayne for this wonderful book. I have it on audiobooks and I’ve downloaded the kindle copy so that I can read it again and highlight what stands out.

I’ve been waiting for a book like this.

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A must read for anyone considering a plant based diet for what ever the reason. Plenty of peer reviewed studies. Looks at the many reasons folk go plant based and makes you look at it from all angles. A book for all meat eaters with suggestions how we can make a difference from many angles….

Solid facts

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