Is Plant-Based Eating The Way To Go?

Dr Kate Marsh, dietitian, looks at the facts

- Dr Kate Marsh

The number of Australians adopting a vegetarian diet is on the increase. In fact, research conducted by Roy Morgan shows a slow but steady increase in the number of Australian adults who report following a vegetarian diet from 1.7 million (9.7 per cent of the population) in 2012 to 2.2million people (11.2 per cent) in 2014 to nearly 2.5 million (12.1 per cent) in 2018. And this was before the more recent rise in interest in plant-based diets.

At the same time, an increasing number of people are ditching key plant foods such as wholegrains, legumes, fruit and starchy vegetables, in favour of low-carb high fat and/or protein diets such as Paleo, keto, and the more extreme Carnivore diet that consists entirely of animal-sourced foods. And Australians are big consumers of animal protein – according to the FAO, the average Aussie consumed around 46kg of meat and 43kg of poultry in 2019.

So, which is the right choice if you have diabetes? Should you be going meat-free? Or eating more animal protein in place of carb-rich plant foods?

Vegetarians and vegans are less likely to develop type 2 diabetes.

A 2017 review of 14 observational studies looking at the association between vegetarian diets and diabetes found that the odds of developing diabetes was 27 per cent lower in those following a vegetarian diet compared to non-vegetarians.