🟡 PBT Monthly | July 2026

Welcome back to PBT Monthly. It’s somehow the last day of July, and boy did it bring the heat, both the literal kind and the kind that comes from someone finding out you cook with oil.

Also on deck: a bean-based cult classic, and further proof that nobody eats breakfast in peace anymore.

Here’s what’s worth knowing before August pretends to be different.

Nobody just eats breakfast anymore. Oatmeal is a personality statement now, and so is the Kombucha, and so is whatever’s happening in that seven-minute “what I eat in a day” video. Food used to be a private decision made three times a day. Now it’s a public identity, complete with its own aesthetic, and everyone has a forbidden ingredient.

Look at the current diet landscape and it stops looking like a spectrum of health choices and starts looking like a map of tribes: high-protein carnivore types, raw vegan purists, biohackers optimizing for a triple digit lifespan, and the whole food plant-based oil-free crowd. Each camp has its own conviction that the other camps have it all wrong.

PBT’s oil-free guide sits somewhere in that landscape too. We published some tips on cooking without added oil and a shopping list for anyone curious enough to try it.

Part 1

Part 2

July’s kitchen output: a Trader Joe’s copycat Cowboy Caviar recipes, and a salsa built for anything that requires a chip.

• End Vegan Infighting: Victoria Moran and Melanie Joy on a podcast making the case that the plant-based world has enough outside pressure without turning on itself. Listen to the episode.

• The Fine Print: a new meta-research review in Obesity Reviews looked at 500 nutrition studies published between 2014 and 2023. Ones with meat industry ties were sixteen times more likely to conclude that meat is good for you. Shocking absolutely no one, but nice to have the number. Read the study.

• Put It To The Test: a randomized, fully controlled feeding trial in Nature Communications tested a whole food plant-based diet against a standard American diet in adults with heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia. The plant-based version won, with clinically meaningful drops in LDL cholesterol. Read the study.

• Bits and Bites: A generative AI model trained on more than 2,200 burger recipes produced a bean burger with nearly double the Healthy Eating Index of a Big Mac and about a sixth of its environmental footprint. Read the article.

• Realty Check: Food & Wine waded into the “is plant-based dead” debate that resurfaces every time alt-meat sales dip. Read the article.

• Climate of Change: A lot of people feel good about their climate efforts. The math doesn’t always agree. Watch on YouTube.

• The Great Vegan Gathering, August 28-31, Gilwell Park, London. Get tickets.

• Vegan Camp Out, August 14-17, Walesby Forest, Nottinghamshire. Get tickets.

• Vegan Street Fair, August 30th, 3-8pm, Westwood Village, Los Angeles. Get tickets.

That’s July. Everyone’s still choosing sides, and nobody’s ready for August. See everyone next month.

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All recipes, tips, and guides are for educational purposes only. Your mileage may vary, and you’re in charge of adapting for allergies, preferences, and lifestyle. Think of this as friendly guidance from the Plant-Based Times reference desk.