Is Plant-Based a Fad or a Long-Term Trend? Elysabeth Alfano Interviews Bloomberg’s Deena Shanker

Author of the article and long-time food reporter, Deena Shanker, joins Elysabeth Alfano on Plant-based Business Hou r… and they get into it. Specifically, they discuss Do the grocery store turnover figures from 2022 represent the whole trade?

Do plant-based foods claim to be healthy or healthier and is a healthier option meaningful for the consumer? Should we consider the environmental benefits that will push adoption and administration backing?

What about food insecurity and national security benefits that will push the authorities backing and adoption? You pretty clearly feel that this is not a health food, am I summarizing that correctly? Deena Shanker : I would just say that it’s not that I feel that it’s not a health food, it’s that I have not heard from a single person that isn’t selling these products that it’s a health food.

Deena Shanker : So, health professionals do not call it that. Kim Williams, the lead cardiologist from Rush Medical Center in Chicago who’s the past president of the American College of Cardiology say specifically that he sees these as healthier than.

Deena Shanker : ‘Healthier than’ is very different than health food. Deena Shanker : A health food is something that promotes health. Elysabeth: Loose. © Bloomberg BusinessWeek Twitter Deena Shanker : Have you ever met a doctor that just explained you should eat this?

Or is it usually you should eat this ‘instead of’ or ‘is this a better choice’ or ‘maybe it’s a better choice?’ I’ve never heard any health professional that gives the kind of recommendation towards plant-based meats that they would give towards something like lentils or chickpeas. I think that people want to say it’s healthier-ish maybe?

I don’t think the companies themselves even claim that they would replace lentils or- they’re not in competition, for lack of a better expression, with lentils. I want to pull up some papers here as you’re mentioning health professionals. I’m reading here from the National Library of Medicine, “Colorectal cancer is the third most common cancer in men and the second in women worldwide.

The consumption of red meat (beef, pork, lamb, veal, mutton) is high in developed countries. Accumulated evidence is convincing of an association between the intake of red meat and especially processed meat for colorectal cancer.” Image: VWS I can do the same for- this is a Harvard research talking about trimethylamine N-oxide. From the Harvard study called, “Red Meat, Trimethylamine N-oxide and Your Heart.” It explains “A substance called trimethylamine N-oxide is produced in your body when it digests red meat. Elysabeth Alfano is the CEO of VegTech™ Invest , the advisor to the VegTech™ Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF, EATV.

She is also the founder of Plant Powered Consulting and the Host of the Plantbased Business Hour .