By 2050, the number of Americans who say they eat a lot of rice and vegetables has more than doubled, from 8 percent to 15 percent.
That’s a trend that has been fueled in part by the introduction of more plant-based foods, which include some of the most nutritious meats, cheeses, and dairy products on the planet.
It’s a growth strategy that has given rise to a movement known as ‘BUDDHA’—a mash-up of Sanskrit and Chinese, and is a big reason that American families have more meat, fish, and cheese per capita than any other country in the world.
It has also given rise, in part, to the concept of ‘Budya,’ a term for healthy living that describes the practice of eating mostly plant-like foods and avoiding high-calorie, processed foods.
The term is also used to describe people who eschew alcohol and other processed foods, as well as other forms of sugar.
It also has the added benefit of making food accessible to a younger demographic, including the vegan.
The idea of the ‘budya’ movement has been gaining steam among younger consumers, who are more likely to say they have a healthy lifestyle and to have more plant foods in their diets.
“I don’t think there’s anything wrong with it,” says Sarah E. Bresnahan, director of the Center for the Study of Aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
“There’s no doubt that this is a really good way to go about making more food available to the people that are already eating a lot.”
But some people have criticized the movement for its reliance on a narrow focus on plant foods, while ignoring the wide range of other foods that people in the US consume.
“This is a very selective approach,” says Linda A. Dabney, a professor of sociology at the College of Charleston who has studied the ‘health culture’ movement.
“It’s about the plant food movement, but it’s also about a broader movement that focuses on a broader range of foods.”
The ‘buddha food’ movement, which has been around for a long time, started as a way to teach children about the benefits of plant-food consumption, and it’s not the only one that’s gaining traction among millennials.
A few years ago, the term ‘babble’ began to be used as a derogatory term for people who have little or no interest in food, according to the Washington Post.
The word has also been used to refer to the younger generation that is more likely, say, to consume only plant-derived foods.
“They think of ‘babbler’ as a whole and they think of it as being bad, or as being a bad person, or that they don’t like food,” says Dr. Dabsney.
“And it’s just not the case.”
A 2014 study published in the Journal of Applied Social Psychology found that older people who were more concerned with their health were more likely than younger people to eat more plant food.
But while millennials may not be looking for plant-focused, whole foods to feed their growing family, they are increasingly turning to a range of more sustainable foods.
A 2014 report from the Institute of Medicine found that “over the past decade, the consumption of foods grown without synthetic chemicals, and including plant-rich plant foods like nuts and seeds, has increased from 5.2 percent to 13.2% of total calories consumed globally.”
The study also found that more than half of the world’s people, or nearly one-third of the population, now consume some form of plant protein.
“The emphasis on plant-powered foods is definitely growing,” says Dabray.
“You can find a lot more plant proteins in places that are now in the United States than in countries like China and India.”
A plant-heavy diet can also lead to higher cholesterol levels.
A 2013 study published by the Journal, Food Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biochemistry found that the consumption and consumption of plant foods is associated with lower cholesterol levels in people who are already obese, while those who are less overweight and obese are more prone to have higher levels of cholesterol.
Another study found that women who were obese were more than twice as likely to eat a plant-dense diet, while they were also more likely on a plant protein diet.
It appears that eating less animal products and eating fewer processed foods can be beneficial to a person’s health, and may even lead to healthier weight management.
But the ‘crisis’ of ‘white supremacy’ also has led to a backlash against the idea of a plant food diet.
“A lot of the people I know who are vegan, who say, ‘We don’t need animal products anymore,'” says Dabsay, “they’re very supportive of plant food.”
And while plant foods have been gaining in popularity over the past few years, there are
