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Final Thoughts

After finishing my research I decided to explore tumblr to find some different reasons people became vegan. As you can see from my reblogs before this post, there is a wide variety of reasons one might adopt a vegan diet. I feel like most people do it for ethical reasoning, but personally the one thing pushing me towards the diet is the health aspect. Before I started this blog I really wasn’t really considering becoming vegan, but with all of the benefits I found I might eventually change my mind. Like I mentioned in a previous post, I have oral allergy syndrome which would be an obstacle in trying to maintain a vegan diet but I do think I could work my way around it. At the moment attempting the diet would be extremely difficult as I am a student in college who eats every meal in the schools cafeteria and they do not provide very many vegan options. Looking in to next year however, I will be cooking for myself so I can definitely see myself trying to incorporate more vegan meals into my diet. Until then I will just have to keep eating how I am eating, but I am sure change in my diet is soon to come!

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Why Vegan?

Veganism can mean different things to different people, so it is a good idea to sit down and work out the reasons why you want to be vegan. Here are a few ideas to start you off:

1. It’s good for you. Vegans tend to have lower body weights, cholesterol levels, and blood pressure than their meat eater friends. They also have a lower chance of getting type 2 diabetes and heart disease. Plus veganism means having to examine your conusmption of food closely, and encourages healthier, unprocessed choices when eating.

2. It’s kind. By refusing to eat animal products, a vegan is taking a stand against the increasingly cruel meat and poultry industry, which is now largely based on factory farming- that is, large-scale farms built to cater for mass consumerism. These farms are negligent towards the health and feelings of animals, treating them as a product, with cruel conditions and close confinement common, if not, inevitable.

3. It’s environmentally conscious. Methane has been listed as the most significant contributor to global warming, second only to CO2. And making up around 80% of this methane gas is the beef and dairy cattle industry. By becoming vegan, one can encourage a more environmentally-friendly lifestyle, fighting global warming through a simple, personal decision. 

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I need this printed on cards I can give out to people who ask me why I’m vegan!

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Is a vegan diet possible for everyone?

I have found that a vegan diet is a very healthy way to eat, and it has countless benefits when done correctly. But I really wonder if it is a possibility for everyone. I am mostly interested if it is possible for pregnant women, children, and the elderly. To be honest, I already know that not everyone can be vegan. Even for myself it would be quite difficult because I have oral allergy syndrome. To keep it short, it just means when I eat fruits and vegetables I have a slight allergic reaction where my mouth and throat get itchy and I get hives. My case of it is not too bad but I do also have a friend whose doctor told her to avoid fruits and vegetables as much as possible because her reactions were getting so bad. With that, my question is not including people with allergies.

I first decided to look into if feeding children a vegan diet is the healthiest choice. Like before, I searched on my library’s database for “vegan child” and came across an article titled “A Successful Diet for Vegan Children Nourishes the Child” written by Tony Peregrin. The article is quite focused around Brenda Davis, RD. It begins with a quote from her that says, “When designing a nourishing vegan diet for children, parents should remember that kids are not miniature adults.” She states how children have different dietary needs because they need to sustain their development. They need a calorically dense diet and a large amount of B12. B12 deficiencies at a child’s age especially, can cause damage that is not able to be fixed. Like I found in a previous post, B12 supplements need to be taken by anyone following a vegan diet. Although it is even more important for a child to have those vitamins. It is also very important for children to continue to have a milk source that is rich in fat and protein after they are done breastfeeding. In all, children could survive off of a vegan diet but it is very important to provide them with the vitamins and supplements they need in order to grow into a healthy young adult.

Next, I searched the database for “vegan pregnancy” and found an article titled “Vegan Pregnancy” written by Mary Fisher, a midwife. Since she is a midwife, she is required to know a fair amount about veganism for her vegan clients. It is her job to make sure they taken care of. She says how many vegans are encouraged to drop their vegan diet during pregnancy to increase their protein levels. The American Dietetic Association says that a vegan diet, if well done, can be done at any state in life. That includes pregnancy, but again, only if well done. Fisher shares the two most common myths about getting protein as a vegan. The first is that it is not possible to get enough protein, but there are plenty of foods that contain high levels of protein that do not contain animal product, so that myth is busted already. Nuts, beans, and soy products are just a few of those options. The second myth is that, “plant foods are composed of incomplete proteins that must be combined to achieve a balance of amino acids (i.e., rice with beans, soybeans with peanuts, etc.).” It has been found that this is not something that needs to be worried about. Fisher says, “it is now known that amino acids from several days' meals will combine to form "complete proteins."” There is also a concern about pregnant woman getting enough calories from a vegan diet, but like any other human, it varies how many calories are needed in one day. As long as the woman is eating enough to keep herself satisfied there should be no issue. Lastly, Fisher discusses many different vitamins that are of concern for someone eating a vegan diet, but just like any other vegan, the woman must just be careful to take enough supplements and not lack any important nutrients.

The last group I was going to research is the elderly. From exploring multiple different sources, I found that the information was just getting repetitive. There really isn’t anything special for the elderly to do if they want to be vegan. Just like all of the rest, they need to make sure they are getting enough vitamins and then they will be okay. It seems to me like anyone could go vegan if they really put in the effort. As long as attention is paid to taking extra supplements, there is no issue. So as long as you don’t have some annoying allergy preventing your food options, you can try the diet at any point in your life!

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Is a vegan diet healthier than the normal meat-eaters diet in all ways?

Most people already know that there are health benefits from eating a vegan diet, from what I have found from my previous posts I know that for sure. But there have to be bad things about the diet, right? My findings have resulted in me wondering if a vegan diet is all around healthier than a normal meat-eaters diet. To find answers I looked up “vegan heath” through my school’s library database and I found an article titled “Health Effects of a Vegan Diet” from The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition on vegan health.

The article begins by discussing health effects of the diet. It says, “Vegan diets are usually higher in fiber, magnesium, folic acid, vitamins C and E, iron, and phytochemicals, and they tend to be lower in calories, saturated fat and cholesterol, long-chain n-3 (omega-3) fatty acids, vitamin D, calcium, zinc, and vitamin B-12.” Vegans seem to get more of the things our bodies want and less of what our bodies don’t want. Then from looking at studies the article shares that eating a vegan diet highly reduces your risk of cardiovascular disease, which I had already found in my previous post. Again, vegans generally have lower blood pressure, lower cholesterol, and are thinner, which are all characteristics that reduce the risk for the disease. The article follows by sharing facts on how a plant based diet affects cancer risks. Besides what I found before, obesity raises risks by a large amount and the majority of vegans are at a healthier weight. Vegans tend to eat more fruits and vegetables that contain nutrients in them that help to prevent cancer. Eggs and red meat are two forms of protein that have been found to increase risks of different forms of cancer and those are two things vegans do not consume. I have always heard about the debate of if vegans are lacking healthy bones, and the article addresses this. It explains how bone health is more than just protein and calcium, other nutrients also affect it. Drinking milk really is not necessary for healthy bones. 

Calcium does play a large factor so there should be a supplement of that somewhere if one is eating vegan. It surprised me to read that vitamins played such a big role on bone health since as I grew up I always heard calcium was the most important for your bones. The article says that although there is some information comparing bone health of vegans and non-vegans they still need more studies to get definite answers. The article ends with discussing the “potential nutritional shortfalls”. Overall, they say with the proper knowledge of an appropriate diet a vegan should be able to do just fine. Without that knowledge, there is a great possibility that one will end up lacking an important part of the human diet. To solve this is easy, just make sure proper supplements are being taken along with appropriate food choices.  

After reading this article it seems to me that yes, a vegan diet is healthier than a diet that includes meat and dairy. But that is only if the diet is done right. If one lacks the knowledge of what nutrients the body needs they will most likely become deficient in vitamins one way or another. As long as proper supplements are taken, the vegan diet seems to provide countless health benefits over a meat eaters diet.

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“After collecting data from more than 81,000 people, the researchers concluded that, on average, those who ate more meat experienced a 60 percent increase in risk for heart disease whereas those who ate mostly vegan protein benefited from a 40 percent reduced risk.”

Eat plants, don’t hurt animals and be healthier for it. Simple. 🌱

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Can a vegan diet prevent or reverse disease? (Heart health)

To conclude my search for if veganism can prevent disease I last looked into heart health. Again, I used my school’s library database for information by searching “vegan heart health”. I came across an article written by Reed Mangels that covers many different topics about health and veganism. The first section of the article was exactly what I was looking for, “Vegans and Heart Disease.” It begins with giving an overview of what can affect heart health, “High concentrations of total cholesterol and LDL cholesterol in our blood are associated with a higher risk for heart disease, and high concentrations of HDL cholesterol are associated with a lower risk of heart disease.” They also note two other particles that affect the risk of heart disease, “High amounts of a particle called Apo A-1 are correlated with reduced risk and high amounts of Apo B are associated with a higher risk.”

After giving this background, Mangels begins to discuss findings from a study that was done in the UK that, “looked at concentrations of these substances in vegetarians, vegans, fish-eaters, and meat-eaters.” The study found that vegans had the lowest intake of all of the things that increase the risk of heart disease, and the highest intake of everything that lowers the risk of heart disease. He does mention that some of this is likely due to the vegan’s lower weight, but the majority is due to dietary differences. The study therefore suggests that vegans are at a lower risk for heart disease.

Following heart disease, Mangels begins to discuss blood pressure. He tells how, “a group of researchers combined the results of more than 30 observational studies and 7 clinical trials to assess the effect of a vegetarian diet on blood pressure.” Having high blood pressure can cause many health issues, including heart attacks, and it affects almost 1/3 of adults in the United States. When the researchers looked at all of the studies and trials together they found vegetarians did indeed have lower blood pressure than meat-eaters. They also saw that when meat-eaters begin a vegetarian diet their blood pressure drops. It is noted that since vegetarians are generally leaner and that can help explain the lower blood pressure. Also, a diet that excludes meat tends to include more potassium and less saturated fat so that could also contribute to the difference in blood pressure.

After reading these articles I have found that yes, a vegan diet can result in a healthier heart. Not just this post, but my previous two on cancer and diabetes have really shown me multiple benefits of this diet. High blood pressure runs in my family so my research for this post has really made me start to actually think of one day adopting this diet. While I still need to do more research on the risks of a vegan diet, so far it seems quite beneficial.

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Can a vegan diet prevent or reverse disease? (Diabetes)

After my last post, I decided I would next research veganism and type 2 diabetes. I know a vegan diet provides benefits to a diabetic person but I wanted to know more about how it affects the person. I went to my school’s library database and searched “vegan diabetes” and I found a study on the “Effect of a Brown Rice Based Vegan Diet and Conventional Diabetic Diet on Glycemic Control of Patients with Type 2 Diabetes: A 12-Week Randomized Clinical Trial.” This study was done to compare two different diets that are usually recommended to type 2 diabetics. It specifically tracked the glycemic control among Korean individuals. The study was very useful to me because it provided measured facts that allowed me to see how the diet affects diabetes.

For the study, the participants were randomly assigned one of the two diets. Their HbA1c levels were measured at 0, 4, and 12 weeks. After the twelve weeks, they looked at the mean HbA1c levels for each of the times they measured. They found that the reduction of the levels was greater in the people following the vegan diet. For the vegan group it was found that they went down -.5% (on average) and -.2% for the conventional group. The scientists also noted, “When only considering participants with high compliance, the difference in HbA1c level reduction between the groups was found to be larger (-0.9% vs. -0.3%).”

From their data, they found HbA1c reduction in both diets, but the vegan diet did have better results. They then suggested a vegan diet for those in need of better management and treatment. Although they do address that further studies would need to be done to have more information on the long-term effects of eating a vegan diet.

Just out of my own curiosity I decided to look into another source on the same topic. I found an article on the American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine titled “Vegetarian Diets and Diabetes” written by Kate Marsh, PhD and Jennie Brand-Miller, PhD. It covers many details and different aspects of diet and diabetes but I was most interested in the facts they shared on how different things you eat can increase or decrease your risk of diabetes. One of the findings that I found particularly interesting was from the Adventist Morality Study. They found that, “Adventist Health Study subjects who were weekly consumers of all meats (including red meat, poultry, and fish) were 29% more likely to develop diabetes compared with those who ate no meat whereas subjects who consumed any processed meats (including salted fish and frankfurters) were 38% more likely to develop diabetes. Furthermore, long-term adherence (over a 17-year interval) to a diet that included at least weekly meat intake was associated with a 74% increase in risk of diabetes compared with long-term adherence to a vegetarian diet (with no meat intake). Even after controlling for weight and weight change, weekly meat intake increased the risk of diabetes by 38%.” A major portion of this article focuses on the correlation of eating meat, specifically red meat, and how it increases one’s risk of diabetes.

In addition to the first source I looked at, this article shares that eating meat does increase your risk of diabetes. They also agree to say a vegan diet is very beneficial in terms of prevention and it is worth trying out if one has trouble controlling the disease or just wants to prevent it.

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Although my blog is just about health, here is an article about the rise of vegan culture!

TEAM VEGAN IS WINNING!

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Can eating a vegan diet prevent or reverse disease? (Cancer)

After my first research post I had another question spark in my head. Both articles I read touched on the fact that meat and dairy can, and do cause different diseases. I remembered a couple months ago I had watched a buzzfeed video (link at end of post) where someone with type 2 diabetes, and two others in the beginning stages, had tried a diet where they cut certain things out to see if it could reverse the diabetes or make them not as likely to end up with it. They do not try a vegan diet in the video, they just cut out dairy, sugar, and gluten. Even with that I started to wonder if a vegan diet can reverse or prevent different diseases on its own. According to the previous articles, eating meat puts one at a higher risk for cancer, diabetes and heart disease. So, I thought I would look further into that and see if there really are major effects on preventing disease if one eats a vegan diet.

First, I decided to look into the relationship of veganism and cancer. I googled ‘vegan’ and ‘cancer’ and I came across a blog post titled, “No, veganism doesn’t cure cancer” which contains statements from Andrew Watt and Emma Leigh. It begins with Andrew Watt who is a medical researcher and vegetarian. Right from the start you can tell how annoyed he is with people who claim veganism can cure cancer. Although he does agree with the statement, “vegan diet equals good health” and he is a vegetarian himself. He notes how there are many benefits to excluding animal products including the decreased risk for the diseases I had mentioned above. Watt explains, “This is thought to be due to the fact that the intake of animal-derived proteins and fats induces an inflammatory response within the gastrointestinal tract. Chronic inflammation can predispose an individual to oncogenesis or the generation and replication of cancerous cells.” Therefore, eating animal products is seen to increase the risk of cancer. He then says again how a vegan diet will not cure cancer, a doctor may recommend this diet to a cancer patient but solely for the reason of it reducing the inflammation. Incase people are questioning how he knows that the diet will not cure cancer he explains why. Simply enough it is because there is no scientific evidence to prove it.

This blog post ends with a short statement from Emma Leigh, a medical doctor. She seems to agree with Watt with how she says, yes nutrition helps control the risk of cancer, but one cannot say it can cure cancer because there is zero evidence to prove that. She also explains how while a solid diet can be beneficial, “there are some supplements and dietary practices that can also alter medical therapy.” Different supplements can decrease the effectiveness on medical treatments and medications which would result in a slower healing or even no healing.

After reading statements from two different professionals it seems quite clear to me that no, veganism cannot cure cancer. Even though it can help prevent it, it is just not a fact that it is a cure. If it was a cure, why would people put themselves through the danger of radiation and chemotherapy? Until there are proven natural cures for cancer I believe people should stick to what the doctors recommend and what there are proven results from.

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Humans consume meat and dairy all the time, are they supposed to?

When I first started my research, I first just looked up this question and found an article from PETA titled “Is It Really Natural? The Truth About Humans and Eating Meat.” Going into that I knew I was going to get some very biased vegan information, but I thought I would see what facts they would be using to back up their points. When scrolling through the article I found that they quoted many professionals so I found it would be credible to some extent. All of the sources they used allowed me to find useful information to answer my question. They first state that humans are meant to be vegan, we are not built to eat meat and it is unnatural for us to do so. Generally, carnivores have sharp claws and large canine teeth and humans lack both of those traits. They also point out how carnivore’s jaws only move up and down while herbivores move side to side to grind plants. This had me thinking about the option of just calling humans omnivores. Can’t humans just eat both? But the later facts I found pushed me more towards thinking we were meant for veganism. Next PETA stated that carnivores eat meat whole and raw, so they rely on their extremely acidic stomach acid to break the meat down. Carnivores also have much shorter intestinal tracts and colons which allow meat to pass very quickly. Since humans have much longer intestines and less acidic stomach acid, it puts them at a higher risk for food poisoning. Along with that, since the meat is in the human body for so long it can rot and lead to colon cancer.

PETA quotes Dr. Neal Barnard who said “we had diets very much like other great apes, which is to say a largely plant-based diet … Meat eating probably began by scavenging – eating the leftovers that carnivores had left behind. However, our bodies have never adapted to it. To this day, meat-eaters have a higher incidence of heart disease, cancer, diabetes, and other problems.” From his findings, humans have been eating meat for some time, but it still doesn’t work perfectly with the human body. Humans started to domestic cattle about 10,000 years ago according to PETA. I am a little unsure about the accuracy of that, but I could not find information on it anywhere else. PETA continues on by saying “until then, children who stopped breastfeeding also stopped making the enzyme lactase and became lactose intolerant. After the domestication of cattle, however, the human digestive tract began to process dairy “products”.” Overall, PETA says no, humans are not meant to consume meat and dairy.

I thought maybe I should check out another website since PETA is a clear vegan activist organization. I found an article on the same topic on NutritionFacts.org written by Michael Greger MD titled “The Natural Human Diet”. He says how “chronic diseases stem from a disconnect between what our bodies ate while evolving.” He also notes how people are usually only looking at the human diet two million years back even though humans have been evolving for twenty million years. Yes, humans have been eating meat for the last two million years, but for the other 90% of evolution humans ate plants for 95% or more of their diet. I looked a little more on the Nutrition Facts website and there seemed to be a large amount of vegan articles which had me questioning its credibility. Although, the fact that it is written by an MD adds to its ethos.

After reading these two articles it seems quite clear that humans are not meant to consume meat and dairy. I was hoping I would come across an article on this topic from a neutral source but these two did reference credible people and studies. They provided their answers while backing them up with statistics and studies which allowed me to learn not only the answer to “Are humans genetically supposed to eat meat?” but they explained what about the human body shows us that humans are not made to eat meat.

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First Post!

Welcome to my blog! I have always been very intrigued about a vegan lifestyle and diet. I really enjoy watching Youtube videos that are about people’s vegan lives, from what they eat in a day to their grocery hauls. Overall, I feel like I know quite a bit about what exactly vegans eat and why a large amount of people chose to go vegan, but I do not have much understanding on how it really affects the body and all of the health aspects of it. From what I see on social media and my everyday life, it seems like the majority of vegans go vegan either for animal rights or just because they see it as a healthier diet. I am sure there are many more reasons people should go vegan, or maybe even reasons people shouldn’t go vegan, so I am here to find out a little more. For my research I am starting with a few main questions. I am sure along the way my questions will change and new questions will come to me but here are the ones I am starting with:

Humans consume meat all the time, are we supposed to?

Is a vegan diet really healthier than a diet that includes meat and dairy?

Is a vegan diet a possibility for everyone?

I am also going to try and hold my focus on informative articles rather than persuasive as I am really looking for the facts on the health.

Here’s a vegan what I eat in a day from one of my favorite youtubers!