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Vegan diet found to have the best health benefits

 

Vegetables

Many people have recently been trying a gluten-free diet in an attempt to be healthier, or for other personal reasons. Gluten is the basic protein found in wheat, rye, barley, and triticale so those on that diet must avoid foods like bread, pasta, cereal, cake, essentially any carb. Carbohydrates seem to have a bad rep in our society and people often try very hard to keep them out of their diet. Some researchers even say that: “We’ve gotten somewhat carb-phobic here in the U.S. when it comes to weight loss”. 

A recent study led by researchers at the University of Southern California have found that a vegan diet even while consuming carbohydrates is best for “weight loss, decreased levels of saturated and unsaturated fat, lower BMI’s and improved macro nutrients.” This study showed that maybe people should be avoiding meat instead of carbs to improve their diet. While a vegan diet is not healthy for everyone, the study still introduced a new look on dieting and healthy eating.

The study randomly assigned one of five diets to several participants that were then followed for six months throughout the study. The five diets included vegan which bans all animal products, vegetarian which bans meat and seafood but allows animal products such as cheese and eggs, pesco-vegetarian which excludes all meat except seafood, semi-vegetarian with some meat intake, and omnivorous which excludes no foods. The participants were invited to weekly support groups throughout the study to make sure they followed their diet and also remained healthy.  At the end of the six months, the participants on the vegan diet lost more weight than the other groups by an average of 4.3%, or 16.5 lb. 

The leader of the study, Gabrielle Turner-McGrievy, was surprised by the outcome of the research. She thought the outcome of the pesco-diet would have been significantly higher than that of the meat-diet but it was not. The vegan diet was also high in carbohydrates. Turner-McGrievy was proud to say that “This study might help alleviate the fears of people who enjoy pasta, rice, and other grains but want to lose weight.”

I found this article to be very interesting because I have been following a pescetarian diet for about 11 months. I exclude meat in my diet but I still eat seafood and other animal products. My diet is also very high in carbohydrates because carbs are easy snacks. I am surprised yet pleased to see how little the effect of carb consumption had on the vegan diet.

 

Original Article:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2014/11/141106101732.htm

 

Related Articles & Additional Information

http://www.thestate.com/2014/11/09/3802103/usc-study-finds-vegan-diet-most.html

http://www.medicaldaily.com/vegans-eat-carbs-and-still-lose-weight-why-you-should-give-diet-shot-310106

http://www.meatlessmonday.com/

http://celiac.org/live-gluten-free/glutenfreediet/what-is-gluten/

http://www.veganhealth.org/

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2 Comments

  1. simbiotic

    Great article Sgagocytosis! I actually am also a vegetarian, and have been considering becoming a vegan for a little while. I have been trying to think of pros to actually make the change to a vegan diet. The scientist, T. Collin Campbell has done much research on vegan-ism, and has found that if you are trying to prevent or cure certain cancers, it is actually beneficial to cut animal products out of your diet. Animal products are said to contain a lot of protein, but their is actually a serious problem with some of these proteins. For example, in milk, the protein Casein- was shown to promote cancer growth, and was an extremely relevant carcinogen. Casein behaves similarly to many other proteins in animal products, By switching to a vegan diet, protein requirements can still be met, and there is no catch.

    If you want to know more about this topic check out this link below!!

    http://online.wsj.com/articles/SB10000872396390444184704577587174077811182

  2. fishinthesie

    This is so surprising! I’ve been following a vegetarian diet for about 7 months now, but I never knew that a vegan diet has some of the most health benefits. Personally I struggle with getting all the protein I need all the time on simply a vegetarian diet (I’m learning to love beans) but I think it would be harder as a vegan. Theres also this kind of diet called the raw vegan diet that doesn’t even cook foods. I think that there are certainly benefits to diets like these, but if you live a very physically active lifestyle, I think its best to stay away from raw vegan diets. Some of these things have come from this societal need to lose weight and diet, and find the best new diet to try. I found an article on the raw vegan diet that explains the misconceptions of this diet and how the philosophies of the diet aren’t necessarily correct. http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/reality-check-5-risks-of/
    In general, I think many of the diets mentioned in your article sgagocytosis are still healthy when done right, and as it said, a vegan diet isn’t healthy for everyone.

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