The Great Plant-Based Con: Why eating a plants-only diet won't improve your health or save the planet

Jayne Buxton

Jun 2022 · Little, Brown Book Group · Narrated by Laurel Lefkow

About this audiobook

'The most incredible book' Delia Smith

'Persuasive, entertaining and well researched' Sunday Times

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.

Ratings and reviews

The blurb alone is a red flag of pseudoscience. B12 is found in dirt/ plants growing in the dirt. If it wasn’t for animals getting supplemented in their diets with B12, they wouldn’t have enough either! Eat organically preferably homegrown in good soil & you’ll get the best food you can get! The one star is for the pictures on the cover.

Full of pseudoscientific nonsense, fallacies and inaccuracies, it seems like anyone can get a book deal these days. Look at the science; zoonotic diseases like COVID-19, looming antibiotic resistance which will threaten modern medicine, global deforestation, ocean deadzones, factory farming and the other disgusting practices of the animal agriculture industry. Also, Cobalamin (B-12) does not originate from animals, it is synthesised by micro-organisms. and can easily be taken in supplement form. The majority of the animals farmed are given B12 supplementation. No peer-reviewed research, just sloppy misinformation. Try again, Jayne.

Honestly this REEKS of an industry funded plant. I came across it because it was heavily promoted everytime I'd search for books on plant based approaches while studying nutrition. Obviously I had to keep an open mind so I decided to have a read and I was quite taken back at how much a lot of it flies in the face of well established science which is why to me it feels so off... I'm not saying this was the case but it smelled as though the author was being swayed by animal agriculture funding.

About the author

Jayne Buxton is an ambassador for the Real Food Campaign and the Public Health Collaboration. In her twenty years as a published author Jayne has written on a wide variety of subjects. Her work includes a work of non-fiction, two novels, many short stories, a blog, and journalistic pieces for The Independent, The Guardian and others.