The power of language: Rethinking food labels to expand our plant-based choices

Even with the growing public interest around plant-rich diets, the number of people adopting these diets remains low, particularly in Canada. Rethinking what we call these foods could help. (Shutterstock)

“Vegan,” “vegetarian,” “meatless,” “plant-based,” “plant-rich,” “plant-forward,” “animal-free”: these are all terms used to describe foods or diets that are mostly or completely made of non-animal sources.

This list can go on and, although these terms are to some extent related, they’re not the same. For example, the term “vegan,” coined in 1944 by The Vegan Society, is used to define products that contain no animal-based ingredients.