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Scientists Say Veganism Is the Healthiest Diet

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics has recently published a paper announcing their position regarding eating a vegan diet – they finally approve for people of all life stages!

Not only do they approve of vegan diets, they actually go on to explicitly state that vegan diets are simply better for your health and better for the environment that eating the standard omnivore diet.

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Vegan Diets Are Perfectly Capable of Providing Enough “Complete” Protein

Veganism affords plenty of sources of protein, most of them full of fiber, healthy heart-friendly fats, and devoid of the trans-fat that’s part and parcel of meat sourced proteins.

The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics emphasized that the assumption that vegans don’t get enough protein is false, debunking the age-old myth of vegetable source proteins being “incomplete” sources of protein.

If you eat a variety of plant-based proteins throughout the day, you’ll be receiving all the essential amino acids your body needs, thus forming a complete protein. Your body simply doesn’t care if you provide all these essential amino acids at the same time, from the same food. It only matters that you do receive enough in a single day, on a consistent basis. This is easy to accomplish if you eat a wide variety of vegetables and legumes throughout the day.

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Your Body Can Absorb Dietary Iron Regardless of Its Source

The “iron” issue has been hotly debated among vegans for quite some time, the main premise being that the body cannot absorb non-heme iron (vegetable sourced iron) as well as heme iron (which is carried in the muscle tissue of animals, i.e meat)

The report put forward by The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics points to several key studies that put that debate to rest once and for all.

  • The body’s absorption of iron depends on its own specific needs, not so much on the source of the iron, meaning that an iron deficient individual will absorb iron (be it heme or non-heme) at a higher rate than an iron replete individual (someone with normal blood hemoglobin levels).

Simply put, if your body lacks iron, it will find a way to glean it from the food you provide, as long as you provide a variety of legumes, grains and vegetables, which a vegan diet provides in spades.

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It was even found that some people’s bodies were so proficient at this iron saving process that they were able to reduce their iron losses in order to compensate for poor diet, the end result being a normalized blood hemoglobin concentration.

That said, we suggest that you take the effort to compile a healthful diet, which means eating a  wide variety of plant-iron containing sources and trust that your body has the ability to scrounge up all the iron that you need, storing it for later use.

Eat a wide variety of this, and don’t worry about maintaining specific iron levels.

No, You Don’t Need Dairy Milk to Have Strong Bones

The Academy also debunked another myth – that vegans don’t get enough calcium (because they don’t drink milk), and thus have weaker bones. Even though in clinical radio imaging studies, the bones of non-vegans were found to have slightly more mineral deposition than those of vegans, groups of vegans who ate adequate amounts of calcium every day did not appear to have an increased risk of fractures over their omnivore peers.

The vegans who did not receive adequate amounts of calcium were liable to fractures, of course. But that also goes for omnivores as well as vegetarians who ate inadequate amounts of calcium containing foods. It is very easy to eat a diet that’s totally sufficient in calcium from plant-based sources. 

Veganism is Suitable for Children and Pregnant Women

According to the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, keeping to a vegan diet improved pregnancy outcomes and reduced maternal morbidity and weight gain and diabetes, particularly during the first trimester.

However, you should be aware that pregnant women are encouraged (vegan or otherwise), due to increased nutritional demands on the body during pregnancy, to take prenatal supplements, particularly iron and folic acid.

The Academy also concludes that vegan children are less likely to develop childhood obesity and more likely to be within the normal BMI. They’re also more likely to maintain this healthful BMI well into adulthood, so veganism may very well be an excellent way to set your child on the path to healthy eating patterns, and a healthy relationship with food throughout their life.

Veganism is Appropriate for Athletes Seeking to Gain or Maintain Muscle-Mass

Research also indicates that it’s possible for athletes to maintain their muscle mass, and even increase it on a purely vegan diet, and that a plant based diet is capable of providing the nutritional needs of athletes.

Again, depending on the athletes performance goals – supplementation may be required. 

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Veganism Helps Reduce and Control Weight and Improve Insulin Resistance

A vegan diet is often prescribed to people attempting to reduce the fat percentage in their body. People who follow a plant based diet have lower body mass Indices (BMI) than the general population.

A high BMI is associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular illness and chronic morbidity in general. New studies have shown that a plant based dietary pattern is associated with fat reduction, even without the addition of moderate exercise.

Veganism was also shown to be associated with decreased insulin resistance, which decreases your risk of developing diabetes and its many complications.

Veganism Reduces Your Risk of Cardiac Disease, Hypertension and Stroke

Eating a diet that relies predominantly on fresh whole foods, fruits and vegetables not only gives your body a multitude of vitamins, minerals and antioxidants that help nourish, heal and enhance its performance. Vegan diets have been found to reduce levels of LDL, known as the bad cholesterol in your blood, reduce blood pressure and decrease truncal fat accumulation, which is associated with an increased risk of developing Ischemic Heart Disease.

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Vegetarian is Better than Omni, but Vegan is better than Vegetarian

A large multi-national multi-institutional study published in 2017 has shown that the vegan diet is the most healthy-one, compared to an omnivore, vegetarian, and pescatarian diet.

Being vegetarian affords you the opportunity to consume a broader range of vegetables, fruits and grains that help steer your body toward a healthier state, but it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of relying on dairy and eggs as convenient sources of protein, iron and calcium.

The result is that you wind up consuming a higher amount of trans-fats than the average person, and if you’re not careful and do not make the effort to ensure that the bulk of your diet comes from fresh whole foods, you might just end up with high cholesterol, blood pressure and put yourself at risk of chronic illness.

Studies have shown that out of all groups, vegans, not vegetarians, had the least risk of developing Chronic Cardiac Illness and were less at risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Everyone Over 50 Should be Taking a Vitamin B12 Supplement

In the nutritional report put forward by the Academy, they suggest that due to a condition known as Atrophic Gastritis which is a natural mechanism in aging that leads to a reduction of the surface area of the stomach lining available for the absorption of Vitamin B12, that all people over the age of 50 should be taking supplemental vitamin B12 to account for this condition, regardless of their dietary choices (vegan or otherwise).

For vegans, this need not be a supplement; it may come in the form of foods fortified with additional amounts of B12 such as nutritional yeast (which is incidentally very high in vitamin B12 on its own), and plant milks.

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A Carefully Balanced Diet is Always a Good Idea (and a Carefully Balanced Vegan Diet is the Best One)

There exists a skewed perspective that veganism somehow equals nutritional deficiencies that must be accounted for. As if the standard diet of mac and cheese, chips and Coke is somehow providing you with all the essential nutrients. Well, it turns out that people in general, regardless of their meat eating inclinations, are suffering from a whole host of nutritional deficiencies. The reason behind this is that we simply don’t eat in a way that is healthy and nourishing to our bodies.

Modern life makes it difficult to reach for healthy food when you are busy, constantly bombarded by advertising that aggressively pushes unhealthy, if convenient, food options in your face, and goes out of its way to make it as easy as possibly to reach for the overly processed food and not the good stuff.

The fact of the matter is this: being healthy is hard; it takes work, planning and a conscious dedication to adhere to a decision you made for the sake of your health. It’s perfectly possible to be vegan and still eat a diet that is nutritionally deficient in many key factors.

Yes, transitioning to a vegan diet can be challenging. But, it’s critical that you not allow anyone to make you feel as though you’re making a sacrifice by going vegan. If anything, by maintain a well-balanced, well planned vegan diet, you’re helping keep your body in the best shape possible, for the longest time possible.

Veganism, like other styles of eating can be healthy or otherwise, depending on the effort and conscious thought and planning you put into what goes into your body. But if you do make the effort, veganism sets you up with the best possible route towards living healthier, for longer.

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