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. 2025 Sep;6(9):837-842.
doi: 10.1038/s43016-025-01227-7. Epub 2025 Sep 19.

Documentary films can increase public interest in plant-based diets in the USA

Anna T Thomas  1 , Jessica E Hope  2 , Maya B Mathur  2
Affiliations

Documentary films can increase public interest in plant-based diets in the USA

Anna T Thomas et al. Nat Food. 2025 Sep.

Abstract

Here we investigate the impacts of media advocating plant-based diets. Search volume for popular films explains the majority of variance in searches for plant-based food, but is not associated with consumption. For three documentaries, we estimated that a standard deviation increase in searches for each film increases searches for plant-based food by up to 43% in the following week. Our findings can inform approaches for raising awareness of sustainable diets.

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Conflict of interest statement

Competing interests: M.B.M. is an unpaid member of the research advisory boards of Sentience Institute, Greener By Default and Climate Refarm. The other authors declare no competing interests.

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