Is There any Solid Evidence that a Vegan Diet is Healthier?
And Another Very Important Question
A very important question!
As you may imagine, a plant-based diet stands heads and shoulders over the Standard American Diet in terms of its health benefits. The evidence of a plant-based diet being healthier than a “healthy” omnivore diet become less clear.
Dr. Michael Greger cites the EPIC Study when he concludes that plant eaters, when compared to meat eaters (after controlling for a variety of dietary and nondietary factors), appear to have lower overall cancer rates. Vegetarians vs. Healthy Omnivores | NutritionFacts.org | The Latest in Nutrition Related Research( Vegetarians vs. Healthy Omnivores | NutritionFacts.org)
The British Newspaper The Independent reported in August of 2016 “Every three percent increase in calories from plant protein was found to reduce risk of death by 10 percent” ( Why a vegan diet can make you live longer). The article cites a study by JAMA Internal Medicine Journal and conducted at the Massachusetts General Hospital, who monitored health and diet records of more than 130,000 people over the course of thirty years.
A very comprehensive study was published by the National Center for Biotechnology Information titled “Comparison of Nutritional Quality of the Vegan, Vegetarian, Semi-Vegetarian, Pesco-Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diet”. Its conclusions include:
“The percentages of participants with normal weights varied from 78.8% for vegans to 67.7% for omnivores; 8.7% of vegans were underweight, which was comparable with vegetarians and pesco-vegetarians. The prevalence of overweight and obesity was the highest for the omnivores, respectively 20.6% and 8.4%, and lowest for vegans (respectively 10.6% and 1.9%). “
The full study is here: Comparison of Nutritional Quality of the Vegan, Vegetarian, Semi-Vegetarian, Pesco-Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diet ( Comparison of Nutritional Quality of the Vegan, Vegetarian, Semi-Vegetarian, Pesco-Vegetarian and Omnivorous Diet)
In general, eating a Low/No PASS (Low Processed, No Animal, Low Salt, Low Sugar) diet results in a longer, healthier life. Does the introduction of some organic, grass fed, no hormone meat to the nutrition mix decrease lifespan and/or increase illness? It is very difficult to decisively say. What can be said is:
- A 100% plant-based diet is as healthy as any diet (and more healthy than many)
- The long-term effects of animal-based nutrition on the environment in which we live likely results in consequences that are adverse to human health and are not accounted for in the studies cited above.
Your question is a very important one. Perhaps another very important question is, why eat meat?
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