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Can a Vegan Diet Be Healthy? A Literature Review
- disgruntled101 6y agoAny diet can be healthy as long as you hit your micronutrient targets for your age and sex and keep calories at your tdee if you want to maintain or slightly lower if you want to lose weight.
- aaron695 6y agoThis is exactly it. For the ultra poor we need to get them the wealth for animal products for the micro-nutrients. It's too difficult to get them on supplements (exactly like vegans and B12) Then it's about satiation, satiety and palatability.
- 317070 6y agoMy rule of thumb: when there are whole civilizations that exist on a diet, you will be okay. In this case the Jain are a prime example.
- redsummer 6y agoI wonder if Jains have acquired genetic adaptions to deal with their diet
- nsomaru 6y agoJainas are not necessarily vegans. Although the nation of India checks out for vegetarianism. One wonders what that collective moment of culture was that a whole group of people decided that meat eating was not going to be a part of their lifestyle.
- lazyninja987 6y agoThe usual reason behind being vegeterianism in india is mostly spiritual or family tradition. Giving up Tamas food (meat, garlic, onion etc.,) is the first set of rules to follow on a spiritual journey. once a family starts on this path, the behavior permeates to next generation automatically. even though my family allowed me to eat meat, i started & stopped within a year because of ethical reasons (and not spiritual reasons).
- beforeolives 6y ago> when there are whole civilizations that exist on a diet, you will be okay. If okay = "survive long enough to leave offspring", then yes. However, health and quality of life are a lot more complicated than survival, that's why we look deeper into the science instead of using these rules of thumb.
- bawolff 6y agoOkay = survive long enough to leave offsprung, and be strong enough not to be murdered by your neighbours. Of course there is more to healthiness thsn that and science is important, but as far the rule of thumb goes, the second part is important.
- incrudible 6y agoA truly vegan society would eventually go extinct if they didn't supplement with B12. To my knowledge, this isn't possible without modern technology. It can take many years for freshly minted vegans to have their stores of essential nutrients depleted, so they may in fact reproduce successfully for one generation, but in the long run severe malnutrition is inevitable.
- denhaus 6y agoquite the opposite diet can be claimed by the inuit. more, the most powerful civilization in the world, the US, has objectively one of the worst diets in history.
- hillsideduck 6y ago"more, the most powerful civilization in the world, the US, has objectively one of the worst diets in history." The diets in the US have gotten worse in recent decades (way more processed foods especially) and the US is objectively facing the ramifications of those diets. That doesn't make them any less powerful but this discussion was actually about health and I think in this regard it paints a clear picture that this is not the way to go.
- isitdopamine 6y agoJain can drink milk and eat dairies, which are a good source of B12. One of the major criticisms of a vegan diet is the a almost complete lack of B12.
- Hitton 6y agoUsing such rule of thumb would let one believe that cannibalism is ok as part of diet because Fore people practised it for generations. We of course know now that it caused spread of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease among them with incubation period on average longer than 10 years. There even appeared mutation among them which granted immunity to it.
- samatman 6y agoWhat a bizarre and irrelevant thing to say. Cannibalism, nutritionally speaking, is perfectly healthy, if you stick to muscle meats. Eating the brain of prion-infested sheep can kill you just as thoroughly as the brain of prion-infested humans. We don't practice cannibalism for other reasons...
- Hitton 6y agoFalse equivalency. If you eat brain of prion-infested sheep, it will end with your death. With cannibalism it continues after members of your community eat you at your funeral, that allows for much wider spread of the disease. We don't practice cannibalism because of our own cultural norms, but that doesn't mean there aren't other good reasons for not doing it. (And question is whether out cultural norms against cannibalism didn't develop just to save us from this, after all there are speculations that it was kuru-like disease that caused extinction of Neanderthals[1]) [1]: doi:10.3390/pathogens2030472
- belgian_guy 6y agoCounterpoint: there's a whole civilization on the western/USA diet, which has been shown to not be that great for your health (see e.g. obesity rates).
- arcturus17 6y agoCounterpoint to your counterpoint, there are also whole civilizations in the Western world, for ex, the peoples of Southern Europe (France, Spain, Italy, Greece) who are total omnivores and boast some of the highest life expectancy rates in the whole world. They don't eat a magical "Mediterranean" diet or other such nonsense: most people will eat a wide variety of things, from vegetables, to fatty processed foods like cheese and sausage. My point is I don't think there is a single "Western" diet with distinct health outcomes (just like the "Mediterranean" diet is also a myth).
- cambalache 6y agoYou are gladly ignoring lots of differences in the diet between Southern Europe and the US. From the size of portions, to the prevalence to HFCS in the American diet, the dramatic difference in consumption of things like olive oil, wine, or beer , the consumption of soft drinks with the main meals of the day, etc. Americans consume signifcantly more Coca Cola than say the Italians, Spaniards or French. Guess what happens then? https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3828681/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3828681/ > Results. Soft drink consumption increased globally from 9.5 gallons per person per year in 1997 to 11.4 gallons in 2010. A 1% rise in soft drink consumption was associated with an additional 4.8 overweight adults per 100 (adjusted B; 95% confidence interval [CI] = 3.1, 6.5), 2.3 obese adults per 100 (95% CI = 1.1, 3.5), and 0.3 adults with diabetes per 100 (95% CI = 0.1, 0.8). These findings remained robust in low- and middle-income countries.
- arcturus17 6y agoI’m not, I’m well aware that around these parts they don’t sell gallon-buckets of soda in gas stations... I was just pointing out how you mentioned “Western” diet, but I don’t think that’s a thing.
- leadingthenet 6y agoJainism is completely different to veganism, so unsure what point you’re trying to make here.
- incrudible 6y agoTo my knowledge, there is not a single tribe known to survive on a truly vegan diet for any extended period of time (several generations). Jains are generally vegetarians, not vegans. There may be some anecdotes that some Jains did live off truly vegan diets, but then again there are anecdotes of people living off sunshine. Neither are plausible.
- indy 6y agoFingers crossed that Betteridge's law doesn't apply in this case.
- adam_klein 6y agoProbably the most comprehensive review of medical research papers and literature related to vegan/plant-based diet: https://nutritionfacts.org https://nutritionfacts.org
- sleavey 6y agoCtrl+F "B12". Here's a quoted reference from the article: > [V]egans exhibited a higher estimated prevalence of inadequacies for some nutrients, in particular vitamin B12 (69.9% in men and 83.4% in women <55 years of age), compared to meat-eaters. […] Our study highlighted that, overall, self-reported vegetarians and vegans may meet nutritional recommendations. Those numbers are crazy high. I am not an expert in any of this, so take this with a healthy dose of skepticism, but I wonder if a vegan diet can be considered healthy without supplements given the current range of available non-animal B12 sources. I think there are some algae sources but I'm not sure you can get enough B12 without getting too much of something else. There's also the question of how efficiently you absorb the nutrients in the food; I heard it's harder to absorb B12 from algae than from cheese for example. Happy to be shown evidence for or against...
- Bancakes 6y agoIt's not just veganism. I have incredibly low vitamin D because I've been sitting at home in closed curtains for the past year. My doctor warned me I'd get impaired vision like this since sunlight releases valuable hormones in the eyes (or something). What I'm trying to say is that I believe it be important to calculate your diet and not count on accidental vitamin intake from meats.
- j0ej0ej0e 6y ago>I believe it be important to calculate your diet and not count on accidental vitamin intake from meats. Absolutely, I only actually bothered trying to figure that out when I stopped meat myself, as I knew I wouldn't be getting everything I was meant to (even though I knew I probably wasn't healthy in the first place). That shit is difficult to figure out, trying to cover everything recommended nutritional intake for a day feels near impossible.
- leadingthenet 6y agoVitamin B12 =/= Vitamin D One is dependent on dietary choices, the other is not.
- sdoering 6y agoFrom the first glance at the title I expected a worse article. But actually it was unexpectedly non partisan. It read like a good and readable literary review. My SO studied nutritional science (actually Ecotrophology) and I gained quite some insights by reading lots of the studies directly. A lot of them I recognized in this article.
- throw8932894 6y agoFasting (AKA not eating anything for 40 days) can be healthy. The real question is: Is it sustainable, even in edge cases like childhood or pregnancy? Even rural chinese sustained on rice and salt, need a chicken once a week.
- leadingthenet 6y agoFasting is healthy. Eating only carbs like rice, isn’t.
- lazyninja987 6y agousually intermittent fasting is best, and the edge cases are not required to do fasting for obvious reasons. i used to follow 2 day per month fasting, and it serves me well.
- helsinkiandrew 6y agoI’ve been a vegan for 35 years and although I think it’s more healthy. It’s likely the biggest health benefit that someone would get going vegan in the past would be that most processed ‘crap’ food is not vegan and you are forced to make healthier choices. I find it annoying that the rise in veganism means there are far more bad choices I can make: big chain burgers, ready meals, cakes, cheesy pizzas are all now available to me.
- shlant 6y agothe double edged sword of having exciting new food options but missing the willpower to enjoy in moderation! haha
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- lazyninja987 6y agoabsolutely right. i am in india and my entire extended family is vegeterian. But people still consume deep-fried unhealthy foods, and with the dawn of global food chains offering veg options, the problem amplifies. Being veg alone does not guarantee health, consuming healthy food in moderation should be priority. On the other hand, situation for meat eaters is worse. zero standards for meat quality, rat meat served in place of chicken. its a nightmare.
- signal11 6y agoVegetarian Indian food is very tasty and also potentially very carb-rich if you don’t watch out — especially the parathas / pooris. Or the large amounts of rice many consume vs their exercise levels. The sugary tea many consume, often multiple times a day, is also a problem — to be clear the sugar is the problem, not the tea. And then there’s Indian sweets and a national love of biscuits (en-GB not en-US) and fried snacks.
- dgellow 6y ago> rat meat served in place of chicken. Wait, what?!
- ggm 6y agoOsteopenea and osteoporosis are huge concerns for young women. Bone demineralisation post menopause comes off the strong bones laid down in youth. If you come off a low base it's higher risk. Twenty or more years hence problem
- o0 6y agoI have been vegan for 6 months now and have seen remarkable health improvements, all verified by lab testing. It has been very amusing having long discussions with my cardiologist trying to explain to him the changes I did as he could not believe the data he was getting.
- david-gpu 6y agoAre you consuming largely unprocessed foods with adequate fiber now? Were you in the past?
- isitdopamine 6y agoThat’s very good, I am glad your health improved. However 1) correlation does not mean causation, less so with one data point 2) people who radically change their diet often do some other lifestyle change out of the same concerns. For instance is not uncommon to switch diet and start exercising at the same time, or switching to a more regalar sleep schedule. Did you?
- o0 6y agoYes, of course the correlation/causation issue is true as always. I am sorry if I gave the impression of presenting a study or meta analysis. Not sure I understand what I did wrong (English is my second language), it was meant to be perceived as an anecdote. I think any change you make will feed into changing other things about you. In my case I changed only diet. This in turn changed me so that I could move more. Both of those things changed how I sleep. Which again feeds back into new changes about my mood and goals. I do not think I could have started with one of the other changes and end up here. Especially in my own circumstance.
- isitdopamine 6y agoI don’t think you did anything wrong, sorry if my comment came out as a bit aggressive.
- hirundo 6y agoYesterday marked six months that I have been > 99% carnivore. My labs also are greatly improved including putting my diabetes into remission, with blood glucose beneath prediabetic levels. Perhaps our common benefits are as much from the foods that we no longer eat as from those we do eat. I was raw vegan for six months a decade ago. I bounced off of that with health problems including brain fog at that point. At the moment carnivory feels more sustainable to me. Possibly the "raw" part is a difference between our experiences.
- im3w1l 6y agoCan it be healthy? Yes. Is it healthy by default, is it typically healthy? Not really.
- shlant 6y agowhat does "by default" and "typically" mean?
- im3w1l 6y agoThat if you just start eating vegan stuff without doing a lot of research you will do it wrong.
- shlant 6y agoI think "a lot of research" is not actually accurate. Eat a varied diet with enough calories, make sure you are getting enough b12 from either supplementation or in fortified foods and when in doubt use a nutrition tracker like Cronometer. I would give almost the same advice to anyone about their diet (except maybe the opposite with caloric intake).
- im3w1l 6y agoThere's also iron deficiency, especially for women. And omega-3. And making sure you get enough "complete protein" i.e. enough of all the essential amino acids. Anyway, it's a statistical fact that a lot of vegans are deficient.
- jackbrookes 6y agoSame as a typical western diet then?
- yakkomajuri 6y agoA few noticeable (and non-scientific!) points from someone who's dabbled with both sides over the last year (spent ~1/3 of the year as a vegetarian/vegan): - I eat a lot more fruits, salad, and vegetables as a vegan (duh!) - The diversity of the food I eat _increases_ as a vegan (even though there are less options to eat) - I do feel the need to supplement protein (which I hate to do and stay away from when non-vegan) - I also supplement B12 as a vegan
- rewq4321 6y ago+1 to the food diversity point. I've never felt the need to supplement protein, but I've always been a big peanut butter eater, that probably helps. I've also really started enjoying tofu and tempeh recently.
- qudchewer 6y agoI've seen my mother and father dwindle in health while following a 'Whole Food Plant Based Diet' over the last five years. They followed it to a T, going to see Campbell more than once. They have both suffered G.I. issues, connective tissue problems. My mother's osteoporosis is now bordering life threatening. Once fish and dairy were re-introduced, they got better. The level of zealotry made it difficult to talk to them about their condition.
- AussieWog93 6y agoPleasantly surprised to see a health-related article written by a vegan where a genuine, honest effort is made to explain scientifically what the actual benefits and risks are, and what the actual flaws are in various vegan/non-vegan diets.
- franciscop 6y agoThe author notes it well: > In Western studies, vegans had lower body mass index, lesser waist circumference, reduced blood sugar levels, lower low-density lipoprotein (protein that transfer lipids around the body; fats are a kind of lipid) cholesterol (a type of lipid), less body fat & lower blood pressure than omnivores. My question is, do the studies shown account for body weight? Sure if you are comparing your average USA citizen (40.0% of which are obese) to a group that happens to be fit, you are definitely going to have much better outcome of the later. First part of the question would be, does veganism help with obesity? Or is it just correlated to it for other reasons? Conjecture: it seems no surprise that people who spend a significant amount of time worrying about their diet have on average much better BMI, but maybe the diet itself also helps. Second part would be, when adjusting for BMI, does veganism also show these benefits? Or are they benefits related only to BMI? There seem to be no separation of the benefits of being vegan vs the benefits of being fit when the health outcome is being discussed.
- arcturus17 6y agoMy question to add to yours is: do those metrics really signal you are healthier beyond a certain threshold? I have no trouble believing that vegans have on average fairly lower BMI and bodyfat than omnivores. I eat a fairly well-balanced omnivore diet, I lift heavy, and I hover anywhere between 13-18% BF. My BMI is quite high because of lifting, and sometimes I'll allow my BF to rise to a certain point if I want to meet particular strength goals. But I'm not fat by any stretch of the imagination. I don't feel any healthier at 13% than at 15% BF, and I am not aware of any science that supports that. So what if a vegan is two points of BF leaner? An outcome-based perspective is much more useful. Do they live longer, and by how much? Also, I'm always wary about definitions and confounding factors in these analyses. One could eat very poorly as a vegan (lots of processed vegetable oils, etc.) but on average they probably eat in a much more health-conscious manner. "Omnivores" as a category will tend to lump in people on bologna sandwich and pepsi diets with people who eat mostly unprocessed foods, watch their energy balance and macros, etc. Are there any studies that compare vegans with health-focused omnivores?
- BlargMcLarg 6y agoThese studies almost always compare typical western diet omnivores to health-conscious vegans, which in itself is fallacious. Health-conscious omnivores will eat drastically different compared to typical omnivores. Exactly as you put it, people who care for their diet are likely to be of better shape. BMI is a bad stat here though: it is likely one will get bigger from eating proper meat than they would on a vegan diet, without any training involved. BMI doesn't account for leanness or muscle mass. The biggest link between obesity and food is sugar intake. The thing that's making most omnivores fat is the needless sugar flavoring and breading surrounding a bad piece of food (be it vegetable, meat, fish, fruit, whatever) as something delicious. Nutritional sciences contradicts itself at any corner, finding healthy vegans, healthy vegetarians, healthy carnivores and healthy omnivores, except for the part where sugar is undoubtedly spiking insulin. Insulin in turn sets people up to be more easily overeat, as well as storing all those sugars as fat more easily. Considering health-conscious people will avoid these foods, they will eat less isolated sugar, fructose and foods high on the glycemic index, even if vegans end up getting most of their daily energy from fruit. Fruit offsets this somewhat thanks to the fiber you're eating with it (also why people say not to drink juice, or at least drink the pulp with it), but fiber can only do so much and fiber being a "mostly good" thing is also being put under scrutiny.
- dgellow 6y agoMaybe a good place to ask vegetarians and vegans: how do you know if your diet is healthy? I'm myself eating vegetarian since 2016 with no issues. But I never check if my food is balanced and wouldn't know if I would be missing some proteins or nutriments. Do you check your blood regularly, or do you have other approaches to ensure that you have an adequate diet?
- Numberwang 6y agoThat question really should not be only for vegans/vegetarians. There could be a lot wrong with omnivor and other diets as well. I go and test my blood regularly. It is easy and I feel more data is always a good thing. We are mortal beings and things will go wrong with you. Tracking things is a good way to stay on top of that.
- noth1 6y agoCan someone disapprove me, as i think we have some bacteria in our bowels that consume carbs and produce majority of amino acids, so in the end our basic requirement for proteins are satisfied. As someone who grow up in rural russia in 90s, meet was a rare usually on holidays/birthday, and i believe i grow up perfectly healthy, ofc it's a fallacy to look at personal experience, but even tho.
- moby_click 6y agoAs their name implies, carbohydrates consist of carbon and water (hydrogen and oxygen), hydrated carbon. Amino acids need at least nitrogen in addition, which in our digestive tract is probably already most abundantly found in amino acids. The microbiome does consume carbohydrates though, mostly those that are inaccessible to our digestive system. I'm not an expert on this, but my guess is that by mass their most important products for us are short chain fatty acids. They might assist in breaking down some proteins that we lack enzymes for or modifying amino acids, but the absorption of amino acids happens mostly in earlier sections of our intestines, whereas the microbial biomass and activity increases towards the later stages of the gut.
- henearkr 6y agoMany many comments here overlook that there are very good natural and vegan sources of B12: Shiitake mushrooms are an excellent source of B12 (and it's in the same form as the B12 from beef, liver, or fish, so it has a very good bioavailability). It's not widely known even by vegans. For both vegans and omnivores, the easiest way to keep an adequate level of B12 is with supplements. Omnivores have them fed to their steaks/cheese/milk during intensive farming. The best of best B12 supplement is hydroxycobalamin, if you can find it in sublingual tablets (it's not readily available in every countries, but you can import it).
- sleepysysadmin 6y agoIm not a vegan, but it absolutely can be healthy. They say 84% of vegans return to meat. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/201412/84-vegetarians-and-vegans-return-meat-why https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/animals-and-us/20141... But this is because they aren't following a healthy approach. Moreover, unfortunately there we found out that there are basically no non-meat sources of B12. Except for the original bacteria. There were some almost-b12 options people were trying but failed. So even if you supplement b12, it's likely to be sourced via a meat source. Worse yet, B12 isnt the only problem. There are 3 others that vegans often dont get in their diet because to get enough would require ungodly amounts of rather unusual foods like flaxseed or seaweed. Like how much can you really eat of those? That said, there is a valid path of veganism. You can find the proper nutrition. You have to thoroughly investigate how to do it but you can.