Difference between plant based diets and veganism

Plant based diets. = Eating mostly plants, but not exclusively plants. Maybe having an occasional cheat meal where one eats meat once a week for example. Or maybe still eating animal products every day but in very small dosages. Anything counts. Even if it is heavy processed and with tons of added chemicals and what not.

Whole Foods plant based diets. = Eating mostly plants, but not exclusively plants. Again, like above, strong majority of diet relies on plants, but animal products are allowed in very small dosages. But unlike above, only unprocessed, whole foods are allowed.

Vegan diets = Exclusively plants. No animal products allowed whatsoever. Also includes processed foods as long as they have no animal origin ingredients in them.

Ethical veganism. = Not eating animal products specifically cos of ethical concerns. As opposed to just veganism where one's reason for it might not be based on ethics, or only on exclusively ethics.

And then there is also whole foods vegan diet, which you did not mention, that does not include processed foods, unlike just vegan diet.

That's how I see it anyways. I guess one could argue that "plant based" and "vegan" are synonyms. Personally, I don't see it that way. Because I feel that the very presence of the word "based" implies that it is not exclusively plants, it's just BASED on plants. Meaning, majority of the diet consists of plants, but not all of it. Like maybe you are vegan but also ate honey. Now, that's not vegan, is it? But it's also not a normal diet cos other 99% of your diet has no animal products. So that's what the term "plant based" is there for; to define the diet that is in a middle between vegan and mainstream diet.

If you want to go deeper into this I guess we could distinguish between:

Ethical veganism.
Emotional veganism.
Environmental veganism.
Health based veganism.
Weight loss/fitness/performance based veganism.
Religious veganism.
Spiritual veganism.
Intellectual/logical/philosophical veganism.
Traditional/conditioned/cultural veganism.
Forced veganism.
"Look at me I'm special/look at me I'm trendy" veganism.

It's all about the reasons, yo. Personally, I am vegan not because I love animals, but because I hate plants! No, just kidding. I don't hate plants. I'm a hippy who loves everything. I am a vegan myself because it's the only diet that just makes 100% sense. I guess you could call me intellectual/logical/philosophical vegan.

Like I said in the other thread, I think of veganism as an ethical position (so ethical veganism is implied). It would include no animal products, would not necessarily focus on being super healthy (although it might), wouldn't necessarily avoid ultra processed foods, etc.

I tend to think of plant-based as avoiding animal products for health reasons. Since it's for health reasons, there might be less strictness about NEVER eating animal products and the occasional consumption of such (JaneJellyRoll brought up on the other thread that Campbell of the China Study is not vegan, but 99% plant-based, according to him). If someone ate animal products more than extremely rarely as an exception, I'd probably deem them "mostly plant based." I also think of plant based as focused on eating a really healthy (as they define it) diet for the most part, so don't really distinguish between plant-based and whole foods plant based ("WFPB"), although I suppose one could. I'd group all the Ornish, Campbell, Gregor of NutritionFacts, Concerned Physicians, Engine2, Fuhrman, Starch Solution, so on stuff here, although I think a number of the people in this camp also share the ethical concerns so might also be vegan. These people tend to avoid added sugar, refined grains, often oils, may have low fat and/or low protein macros, and the like.

There's also raw vegan/plant-based, I suppose.

It's pretty cut and dry from a simple google search. I don't think there's really opinions about what each one entails.

I always thought "plant-based" was just mostly vegetarian, for health reasons. Might eat a little meat or other animal products, but the main diet is plants.

I always assumed the only "vegan" was for ethical reasons.

I guess the Whole Food plant based gets to brag about eating "clean"?

I'm interested to hear what folks have to say! I have learned so much about how people define their WOE and others' WOE since joining here.