Plant-Based, Ketogenic & Alternative-Protein Diets

Few areas of nutrition generate as much public interest, passionate debate, and rapid innovation as the world of alternative dietary patterns. Plant-Based, Ketogenic & Alternative-Protein Diets brings scientific scrutiny to three of the most prominent: the rise of plant-forward eating, the metabolic approach of ketogenic diets, and the fast-emerging category of novel protein sources. Each carries enthusiastic advocates and bold claims, and each deserves to be examined on the strength of its evidence rather than its popularity.

Plant-based eating — spanning vegetarian, vegan, and flexitarian patterns — sits at the centre of conversations about health, sustainability, and ethics, raising practical questions about protein adequacy, key nutrients such as B12 and iron, and how to plan these diets well. Ketogenic and low-carbohydrate approaches take a very different route, shifting the body toward fat metabolism, with documented clinical uses but ongoing debate about long-term effects. Alternative proteins add a third dimension entirely: plant-based meat substitutes, cultured meat, insect protein, and other innovations reshaping how the world might feed a growing population sustainably.

What unites these topics is the need to weigh benefits against limitations honestly, considering nutritional adequacy, health outcomes, and environmental impact together. Dietitians, food scientists, sustainability researchers, product developers, and clinicians will find substantial material here, particularly those advancing plant-based nutrition and next-generation protein science. The breadth of this subject appeals widely to those at the Nutrition Conference, offering a balanced, evidence-led exploration of dietary patterns that are reshaping plates, markets, and food systems — and separating their genuine merits from the considerable hype that surrounds them.