Vegan diets don’t work. Here’s why

By rjoachim | March 27, 2023
People choose a vegetarian or vegan diet for a number of reasons. Sometimes it’s out of concern for the way animals are treated or for the environment. But it’s also common to choose a plant-based diet because it’s considered healthier.Research over many years has linked plant-based diets to lower rates of heart disease, type 2 diabetes, and some cancers (as compared with diets high in meat and other animal products). Dietary guidelines and recommendations from nutrition experts reflect this, encouraging the adoption of diets (such as the Mediterranean diet and the DASH diet) that are heavy on fruits and vegetables and restrict consumption of red meat.
Popular plant-based diets include
a vegetarian diet, which includes no meat
a vegan diet, a type of vegetarian diet that excludes not just meat but also animal products, such as milk or eggs
a pescatarian diet, which is largely vegetarian but also includes seafood.Plant-based diets carry some risk of inadequate protein, vitamin, and mineral intake. But these risks are readily overcome by choosing the right vegetarian foods and, when necessary, supplements. For example, soy, quinoa, and nuts are good sources of protein, and tofu, lentils, and spinach are good sources of iron.
But a new study, published in the medical journal The BMJ, raises the possibility that despite the health benefits demonstrated by past research, plant-based diets could come with a previously unrecognized health risk.Researchers in the United Kingdom analyzed the risk of stroke and other health problems over two decades among nearly 50,000 people based on the diets they followed. The types of stroke were also analyzed, including bleeding into the brain (hemorrhagic stroke) and nonbleeding stroke (ischemic stroke). Compared with meat eaters:
rates of heart disease (such as angina or heart attack) were 13% lower in pescatarians
rates of heart disease were 22% lower in vegetarians
rates of stroke were 20% higher among vegetarians. However, the overall risk was small, equal to three extra cases per 1,000 people over 10 years.
the higher stroke risk among vegetarians was mostly due to hemorrhagic stroke
the higher stroke risk was not observed among pescatarians.
If confirmed, these findings will complicate the way we look at plant-based diets. Are there serious and underappreciated downsides to these diets that should make us think twice about choosing them? Or is the increased risk of stroke heavily outweighed by cardiac and other health benefits?
This study is also a reminder that the health impact of a particular intervention (such as diet) may not be easy to predict or explain. In most cases, the risk of stroke and heart disease tend to rise or fall together, but that wasn’t the case in this research.
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/plant-based-diets-are-best-or-are-they-2019103118122
Posted in Diet & Nutrition