There’s your problem. I eat the same but I based it all on those few token vegetables. It’s much healthier that way, and I think better for the environment also.
But did it come from a meat-packing plant?
Yeah and the cow definitely had a plant based diet.
I heard a new one today–“pollotarian”. 
The term’s still not exactly defined, but I think a lot of the people who say they eat a ‘plant based diet’ generally eat vegan, but either want to avoid the inevitable snark and bizarre aggression that they often get in response, or avoid association with the militant-type vegans that get all the attention, or just want to avoid the whole ‘You’re not vegan I saw you eating something with dairy in it, you’re a FRAUD’ type responses if they’re accidentally or on purpose decide to eat something non-vegan.
People just love to get all up in other peoples’ diets, using a vague term gets the gist across without giving a strict definition that other people can then try to police- and probably sells better, as people are often very wary of ‘vegan food’, but ‘plant based’ sounds OK.
Every product I’ve seen in the UK labelled ‘plant based’ has contained no animal products.
This was my impression, too. The times I’ve seen “plant-based” being used, it referred either to foods that contained no animal products, or to those who don’t eat animal products, but don’t want the vegan label.
I do remember that CGP Grey and Brady Harran (Numberphile et al) had an episode of their podcast Hello Internet where they watched a documentary pushing a plant-based diet, and Grey commented that they clearly were pushing veganism without the ideology/baggage.
I also note that veganism, in its original form, avoided animal products beyond just foods, and tried to avoid any products made with animal labor or animal testing. Even in less strict vegans, it seems the morality is the entire point. So I totally get wanting to have a word that describes the same diet without that.
Veganism is a philosophy, plant based is a diet. Vegans eat a plant based diet as a result of their belief in avoiding the exploitation of animals but also many other practices that are also consistent with their beliefs. You could be someone who eats a plant based diet, eg. solely for health reasons and not care about the animal suffering angle and this would make you plant based but not vegan.
Vegans eat a non-animal based diet. The philosophy is not about a love of plants.
So is “plant based” maybe the opposite of “keto”? Like keto eschews sugar and other carbs for no focus other than health, “plant based” eschews animal products for no focus other than health.
Ahhh! I believe you have put your finger on it. I’ll be mailing you a pan of homemade, plant-based, cashew fudge.* Thank you! 
*Thelma Lou - Wikipedia
A recurring character on the Andy Griffith Show – TV sitcom set in Mayberry, a small southern town.
“Like most Mayberry ladies, she is an accomplished cook, being especially celebrated for her ‘cashew fudge’ (a favorite of Barney’s).”
There is “plant” in the scientific sense - which fungi are not
There is “plant” in the culinary sense - which arguably fungi are.
Given that there are all sorts of diets, it is conceivable there is one that excludes all fungi, but if so I am not aware of the precise term for it.
People living a subsistence diet in the high arctic regions may have a diet almost exclusively composed of animal foods, but that’s mostly due to lack of access to plants during most of the year. Such people will consume things like berries, or even the partially digested stomach contents of animals like caribou, when they get the chance so it’s not so much they choose to eat that way as that’s what’s available where they live. It is possible that they they may go months eating nothing but animal flesh.
Or they want the flexibility to eat at restaurants without giving the staff a third-degree on food origins, or are nearly entirely vegan but sometimes use beef/chicken/fish broth or stock, or take medications using gelatin-based capsules, or once in awhile eat an egg to avoid B12 deficiency, or eat a vegan diet but without the other philosophical/moral attachments of being vegan, full stop, or otherwise might be vegan 99.999999% of the time but don’t kick themselves if they occasionally eat something animal-origin - basically, probably vegan when possible/practical but not rigidly dogmatic about it.
In many cases… probably yes.
This has been mentioned before, and it is still a non-exclusively-plant-based diet even if no plants are eaten at all. Since nothing is forbidden and it is not exclusively plant-based then any diet satisfies those conditions.
I thin this new term ‘plant-based’ came about because of the mistaken belief that ‘vegan’ is a synonym for ‘vegetarian’. They may overlap in their definitions but they are not the same. However, ‘plant-based’ seems to mean exactly the same thing as some definitions of 'vegetarian. That is most of the time in my experience, very few people who identify as ‘vegetarian’ eschew all animal food products to the extent of strict vegans. That is simply my experience although I’ve met a lot of vegetarians I haven’t met all or even a majority of them.
BTW, this is the homepage for Eleven Madison Park, a restaurant in New York City with three Michelin stars and four stars from The New York Times. The homepage includes an announcement from the chef, “I’m excited to share that we’ve made the decision to serve a plant-based menu in which we do not use any animal products — every dish is made from vegetables, both from the earth and the sea, as well as fruits, legumes, fungi, grains, and so much more.”
So he is planning to include fungi but not animal products in his menu.
In my experience , few people who identify as vegetarians avoid all animal products - most will consume dairy, eggs, honey etc. But I’ve never known someone identifies themself as vegetarian who sometimes eats actual meat. I think that’s the category that led to “plant-based” - the people who mostly avoid meat, but eat it sometimes.
I have known people who call themselves vegetarians who eat meat occasionally because, of course, they are not really vegetarians, and ‘occasionally’ doesn’t mean 'every time we go to the place with the really good hamburgers". I’m sure we’ve all met that kind at least once. I wouldn’t judge them for their diet, but I would for their blatant hypocrisy.
I have known some who also admit to an occasional lapse, or think for their health they need some animal products besides things like eggs, dairy, and honey. I don’t judge them at all. It takes discipline to even mostly follow a strict diet like that, I doubt I could go without meat for long even it if it would kill me quickly instead of slowly hardening my arteries.
I’m just the kind of person who prefers hard definitions for things. Even things I don’t care much about. ‘Plant-based’ and ‘vegetarian’ both would appeal to me if they uses some more specifics, but in reality it’s not that simple, there are a lot of variations of people who eat almost all vegetables and none of them are going to change to suit me.
I think “plant-based” is just a marketing gimmick, mainly to attract people who eat meat and are scared of eating something labelled “vegetarian” but who have been told that plants are healthy. It’s actually meaningless. Cows eat plants, so is steak plant-based"?
No, it isn’t.
Why the rolleyes? It’s a term going back to the 80s, and plenty of people eat a diet that avoids red meat/mammals. It’s useful to have a term to describe their dietary preferences. There’s also pescatarian – vegetarians who will also eat fish (in my experience, most vegetarians I know consider fish meat.) Then there’s also flexitarian – people who mostly eat vegetables, but will occasionally consume animal flesh.) And, as mentioned above, lactovegetarians (like many Hindus who will consume milk and milk products but not eggs), ovo-lacto vegetarians (probably the default “vegetarian” in the US), ovo-vegetarians (you can figure it out – this one I don’t personally know any examples of, but they do exist, or so Google tells me), etc.
Yeah, that’s how I’ve understood it too.
Vegan is no animal products/byproducts/etc… to the point of not using photographic film, leather shoes, etc… for some vegans.
Vegetarian means a mostly vegetable diet- at least not meat. Stuff like eggs, dairy and cheese may be ok.
Plant-based is something I’ve typically seen with reference to stuff like cosmetics or cleaning products, but in the context of food, I always understood it to be more like my nephew, who calls himself a “vegetarian”, but will eat things like vegetable dishes made with chicken broth, for example. Sort of a different slant on vegetarian- maybe somewhere between pescatarian and vegetarian, or maybe a parallel category.
Like I was saying though, ('ve mostly seen the term “plant-based” in the context of cleaning products like shampoos or hand soaps, where the surfactants are largely derived from coconut oil or other plant sources, instead of detergents based on petrochemicals or other chemical sources, or animal-based stuff like tallow or lard based soaps. It’s not that special of a category IMO; things like sodium lauryl sulfate (the dreaded “SLS”) can be manufactured from a coconut oil base, as can most of the other surfactants commonly used in personal care cleansers.
Maybe this first group of people just adopted the “vegetarian” moniker before “flexitarian” became a thing. I know some may not care for the distinction between flexitarian and the average omnivorous person, but I think it’s a worthwhile goal to try to be mostly vegetarian and occasionally eat meat and is a lot more attainable from a mental perspective. If 50% of people reduced their meat consumption by 50%, that would have a much bigger impact than 5% of people reducing their meat consumption by 100% (a rough guess at the number of Americans who are vegetarian based on a quick Google search).
For the term “plant-based” - I expect it to mean using zero animal products if it’s a “plant-based” product. I agree that it probably arose from companies looking to avoid the more divisive “vegan” labelling for non-vegans while still making it clear that it doesn’t contain animal products. I don’t really see the term used too much to describe different kinds of diets, but I would assume it means an essentially vegan diet and not a vegetarian or flexitarian diet.