VegPlate: A Mediterranean-Based Food Guide for Italian Adult, Pregnant, and Lactating Vegetarians.

Vegetarian diets, based on a variety of plant foods, are a healthy option for humans. People are switching their diets to plant-based because of empathy toward animals, health, and environmental reasons. In relation to the last issue, some past studies on the environmental impact of various hypothetical dietary patterns have shown that the lower the animal food content of the diet, the lower the total environmental impact.40Baroni L. Cenci L. Tettamanti M. Berati M. Evaluating the environmental impact of various dietary patterns combined with different food production systems.Eur J Clin Nutr. 2007; 61: 279-286Crossref PubMed Scopus (236) Google Scholar, 41Barilla Center for Food and Nutrition. Double Pyramid 2015: Recommendations for a Sustainable Diet. https://www.barillacfn.com/m/publications/dp-2015-en.pdf. Accessed August 6, 2017.Google Scholar Conversely, a recent study based on real consumptions showed a high inter-individual variability of some partial impacts among the patterns, with some vegetarians having a higher impact than some omnivores.42Rosi A. Mena P. Pellegrini N. et al.Environmental impact of omnivorous, ovo-lacto-vegetarian, and vegan diet.Sci Rep. 2017; 7: 6105Crossref PubMed Scopus (90) Google Scholar Vegetarians should receive practical information for the best dietary planning. The VegPlate represents an easy tool to plan well-balanced vegan and lacto-ovo-vegetarian diets, providing detailed indications regarding the amounts and kinds of foods to consume for adults and for pregnant and lactating women, and offering specific advice for managing critical nutrients. Moreover, most Dietary Guidelines for the general population encourage the consumption of grains, legumes, and other plant foods characteristic of the Mediterranean diet. To this aim, the VegPlate also may serve as a basis to plan a Mediterranean omnivorous diet by including few servings of protein-rich foods as animal food, while respecting a variety of choices within the group.