Media Misinformation: Vegan Society dietitian Emily Angus Sets the Record Straight about Vegan Diets

Like many well-versed in veganism, our team at The Vegan Society is hyperaware of dramatic headlines such as “Vegan men ‘frail’ and more likely to die young” or “Warning vegans! Animal proteins are crucial for healthy aging”, doing the rounds on a daily basis.

Thankfully, our dietitians Emily Angus and Andrea Rymer are on hand to call out clickbait headlines, where the science doesn’t match these messages communicated to the public.

Emily explains the nutrition team’s role in setting the media straight when it comes to misinformation and providing a balanced argument on veganism in the media.

Staying on top of the evidence

As The Vegan Society’s nutrition team, Andrea and I spend a lot of our time aiming to improve peoples’ understanding of balanced vegan nutrition both on a personal and wider educational level

As with any area of research, our knowledge of nutrition is constantly evolving as new scientific studies are published. Registered dietitians have a professional obligation to keep on top of emerging evidence, and one of my favourite aspects of my job here at The Vegan Society is that I get to communicate this evidence across a variety of different platforms. One area new to me when I took on my role was working with the media to ensure the public is receiving accurate, evidence-based information about vegan nutrition.

Misinformation matters

When January/Veganuary rolled around and launched veganism into the media spotlight again, some of our recent work has involved responding to, and requesting correction of, misinformation.

People may assume that nutritional information published in newspapers, both online and in print, fairly and accurately reflects the results of scientific studies. However, it has been found that the quality and accuracy of media nutrition coverage is often low¹,². One study found that, on average, 70% of dietary health claims made in UK national newspapers were not backed up by sufficient evidence. The authors of this survey raised the valid concern that “misreporting of dietary evidence by UK newspapers was widespread and may contribute to public misconceptions about food and health”².

This is certainly true for some recent coverage around vegan health, where headlines have misrepresented the results of studies. Whilst dramatic declarations such as “Vegan men ‘frail’ and more likely to die young” or “Warning vegans! Animal proteins are crucial for healthy aging, major study of 50,000 women shows” certainly catch attention, the scientific studies behind the headlines do not support these conclusions. For example, the study referenced in the second headline showed that the consumption of animal proteins was linked to a 6% reduction in markers of healthy aging, whilst plant proteins had a 22–58% positive impact³.

Unfortunately, misinformation tends to be more dramatic and provoke stronger emotions in readers than the nuance of scientific methodology. What’s more, the emotional response associated with ‘fake news’ has been found to increase readers’ likelihood of believing in and sharing false information⁴.

Our nutrition team is committed both to a more favourable and balanced portrayal of vegan issues in the media and to the accurate representation of evidence, allowing people to make informed decisions about their health and wellbeing. With this in mind, we work behind the scenes with our communications team to contact editors, authors and governing bodies to request corrections to articles (including those mentioned above) where our professional opinion is that a piece is inaccurate or misleading.

Finding a balance

Whilst we recognise a lot of ‘fake news’ exists, we also have to acknowledge when articles are based on credible evidence and use this information to react responsibly. For example, a prospective cohort study by EPIC Oxford⁵ found that vegans had a higher risk of bone fractures than omnivores, and this gained media attention. As with all nutritional science there are nuances, and the study may not accurately reflect today’s generations of vegans. But this paper was the first comprehensive study assessing the risk of bone fractures for people following different dietary patterns.

Following these results, The Vegan Society’s nutrition team made a conscious effort to emphasise the importance of bone health for vegans. We teamed up with the Royal Osteoporosis Society to create a range of educational content, including our bone health webpage, to help vegans optimise their bone health with practical nutritional guidance and recommendations around physical activity.

A voice for vegans

As experts in vegan nutrition, we also aim to be visible and available to the media so that publications can reach out to us for comments, quotes or guidance. It is always preferable to be proactive and collaborative, and some examples of this over the last year have included appearing as guests for debates on Veganuary, Vegan Diets and Longevity and Plants First Healthcare on GB News, as well as discussing the benefits of eliminating meat from our diets on BBC Oxford Radio. We also provide quotes and content to publications such as The i Paper on the long-term impacts of vegan diets and on raising vegan children for Dr Ranj’s Healthy Child Magazine.

By working alongside the media, and by continuing to expand and update the nutrition information we provide across The Vegan Society nutrition channels, we hope to establish ourselves as a key resource for those looking to report on topics relating to veganism in 2025 and beyond.

For information about vegan nutrition, head to vegansociety.com/nutrition

For media enquiries, contact us via our press office at media[at]vegansociety[dot]com

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