Key ways to legitimize diet shifts that favor plant instead of animal protein sources

A shift to a more healthy and sustainable diet (as recommended by the EAT Lancet Commission report) is currently hampered by persistent choices for meat. This paper puts forward the view that proposals for a diet shift will fall short without broad social legitimation by a change in social norms favoring plant instead of animal protein sources. Using psychological and linguistic perspectives, the paper aims to improve understanding of legitimation related to authority, moral evaluation, rationality, and story logic. Each category is examined with a view to how it may support (or oppose) the reordering of protein sources necessary for a diet shift. Key strategies are a further revision of the existing national authority-based dietary guidelines, using the diversity of rationality-based legitimations to support them, avoiding polarization of moral-based ideologies and being cautious of myths, micro-myths and stories.