Diet Quality vs Diet Label: Why How You Eat Matters More Than What You Call It

No matter which diet you follow, diet quality always matters.

Vegan. Vegetarian. Paleo. Keto. Low-carb. Carnivore. Even “just eating healthier.”

You can follow any of these and still do it well… or do it badly.

There are good and bad versions of every diet.

And the difference isn’t the label. It’s how you follow it.

A huge new study following 64,000 adults in France over 9–15 years makes this crystal clear. Full text link in the comments.

🎯 Key Findings🎯

🙂 High-quality, minimally processed plant foods were linked to a significantly lower risk of cardiovascular disease

😐 When those foods were replaced with ultra-processed plant foods, the benefit disappeared

😒 Some ultra-processed plant-based diets actually increased cardiovascular risk

Same “plant-based” label. Very different outcomes.

❓ What counts as ultra-processed plant foods?

These are some of the most common culprits:

Crisps / potato chips

Industrially processed breads

Ready-made pasta meals

Highly processed supermarket soups (often thickened with added starches)

Store-bought salad dressings (high in seed oils, sugar, and additives)

Sugary breakfast cereals

Sugar-sweetened fruit drinks and colas

Confectionery e.g., chocolate bars, biscuits, cookies

❓ What does high-quality plant food actually look like?

It’s refreshingly simple:

Vegetables

Mushrooms

Fruits

Legumes

Nuts

Seeds

❓ Why the difference matters?

Whole foods retain their natural nutrient density, while ultra-processed foods have much of this stripped away with only selected nutrients added back through fortification

Whole foods provide a natural food matrix your digestive system knows how to use

Ultra-processed foods often combine unnatural, hyper-palatable mixes of sugar, fat, and refined starch

UPFs come with a chemical payload: added sugars, emulsifiers, colourings, flavourings, artificial sweeteners, hydrogenated oils and more

👉 Bottom Line on Diet Quality vs Diet Label

No matter what dietary pattern you choose favour minimally processed foods as much as possible.

Diet quality vs diet label - the name of the diet matters far less than the quality of the food within it

~~~~ Cardiovascular disease risk and the balance between animal-based and plant-based foods, nutritional quality, and food processing level in the French NutriNet-Santé cohort: a longitudinal observational study

https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lanepe/article/PIIS2666-

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