Whole-Food  Plant-Based (WFPB)

Scientific Studies

The WFPB diet is based on thousands of scientific studies published in the peer-review literature.

Types of studies and strength of evidence

There are two types of studies commonly used in nutrition science; observational studies and interventional studies.

Observational and interventional study design types; an overview
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4083571/

  • Observational studies, also called epidemiological studies, are those where the investigator is not acting upon study participants, but instead observing natural relationships between [diet] factors and [health] outcomes.
  • Interventional studies, also called experimental studies, are those where the researcher intercedes as part of the study design.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hierarchy_of_evidence
A hierarchy of evidence (or levels of evidence) is a heuristic used to rank the relative strength of results obtained from scientific research.

Hierarchies of Evidence Applied to Lifestyle Medicine (HEALM): Introduction of a Strength-of-evidence Approach Based on a Methodological Systematic Review 2019
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6577349/
Assessment of evidence relevant to lifestyle medicine requires a potential adaptation of characterize strength of evidence (SOE) approaches when outcomes and/or exposures obviate exclusive or preferential reliance on randomized controlled trials (RCTs).

Example observational studies

Coronary artery disease is virtually absent in cultures that eat WFPB diets, such as the Tarahumara Indians of northern Mexico, the Papua highlanders of New Guinea, and the inhabitants of rural China and central Africa.

Data from several large-scale observational studies show that diets closest to WFPB are associated with the least amount of chronic disease and the longest life spans:

Example interventional studies

Several interventional studies reversed chronic diseases with a WFPB diet:

Sources

Dr. Greger, M.D.

Dr. Greger presents an enormous body of scientific evidence in his book "How not to Die" and on his website https://nutritionfacts.org/topics/.

Dr. Greger recorded live at the University of Pittsburgh presents a sampling of the evidence:

Jeff Nelson, journalist

VegSource channel https://www.youtube.com/channel/UClEsPxvotpTJ1Z8eu2Y97rg
Jeff Nelson takes a critical look at nutrition studies.

Finding scientific studies

Abstracts of studies are searchable and freely available on PubMed. Most full texts of the studies are behind paywalls. Sci-Hub is your friend.

More search resources are listed on searching WFPB topics.