If you have been vegan for more than 5 minutes you have probably found yourself trying to defend you choice to some uniformed meat eater. I did that all of the time before I started this website. And since I have started it, the arguments have been overwhelming. That is why I started writing a series of educational articles to help us all be better “vegucated.” I will be adding this article to the list and you can read them all HERE. I want us all to be more informed about vegan nutrition and vegan health in general.
I didn’t create these facts from thin air. They come directly from a paper published at the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. You can get the link to that paper and read it for yourself if you want. It’s at the bottom of this article. It’s very clinical and not as easy to read as my simple list. So for those who like light reading my list may be enough. And for those who want the scientific details and source citations you may want to read the original paper.
1. Vegan diets are higher in dietary fiber, magnesium, folic acid, Vitamin C, Vitamin E, Iron and Phytochemicals
2. Vegan diets are lower in Calories, Saturated Fat and Cholesterol
3. Vegans enjoy a lower risk of Cardiovascular Disease
4. Vegans enjoy a lower rate of obesity
5. Vegans enjoy a lower rate of type 2 diabetes
6. Vegan food boasts a lower rate of some cancers
7. A vegan diet increases the intake of health protective nutrients
8. A vegan diet decreases the intake of foods implicated in many chronic diseases
9. Vegans are generally thinner than meat eaters and vegetarians
10. Vegans have lower total and LDL cholesterol vegetarians
11. Vegans have lower blood pressure than vegetarians
12. Vegans who consume at least 525 mg calcium per day have the same bone density and bone fracture rate as omnivores. This disputes claims otherwise.
13. Vegans who eat a wide variety of food show no deficiency in vitamin D or iron. This disputes claims otherwise.
14. Vegans who eat B12 fortified foods or take B12 supplements are no more B12 deficient than omnivores. This disputes claims otherwise.
15. The muscle mass of Vegans is comparable to that of vegetarians and omnivores.
16. In every large, peer reviewed study to date, vegans have shown better overall health compared to omnivores.
17. In every large, peer reviewed study to date, vegans have been shown to have a better mood and outlook on life than omnivores.
18. In every diet based disease prevention study to date, the vegan diet did no worse than any other diet at preventing disease. And in most cases it did much better than other diets.
After reading this list of scientific facts, you are either very happy you are a vegan or you are questioning why you aren’t.
If you need help transitioning to a vegan lifestyle and want more information on being vegan, read our articles on getting vegucated here.
To read the original paper from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition click HERE.
