Veganism has exploded in popularity across the world. For some, it's out of sympathy for animals, but increasingly, many are swapping diets due to the environmental and health claims. But are these claims even accurate? Like, does going vegan actually make a noticeable difference on the planet, or are those impacts over-exaggerated? And is it even healthy at all? Or is the lack of animal proteins and nutrients actually detrimental to your body? While a lot of claims have been made over the years, our access to good quality studies has only really just started to become accessible.
So let's dive in. First up, is going vegan better for the environment? The answer is super simple, yes. Point blank, yes.
Avoiding meat and dairy products has a major impact on the environment. Study after study after study has found that a vegan diet, as compared to a full-on meat-eating or omnivorous diet, or even a vegetarian diet, uses less land, conserves more water, and produces less greenhouse gases, by about 70 to 80% compared to omnivorous diets. And that's a huge difference.
Now, that's not to say every vegan food is created equal. Milk is the best for the environment, and even there you can see that something like almond milk takes a lot more water to create than other alternatives. But on the whole, transitioning to a vegan or even vegetarian diet will significantly decrease your personal impact on the planet.
Of course, simply reducing your meat and dairy consumption can also make a difference, so it doesn't have to be so black and white. But full stop, a vegan diet is better for the environment and the future of our planet. All right, on to the more complicated subject of diet.
Interestingly, some of the first athletes on a strict plant-based diet were the gladiators. All fighters' diets contained large amounts of legumes, pulses, and grains, and contained little to no animal protein. But it's only recently that research has delved into the question of whether or not a vegan diet cannot only enhance athletic ability, but bolster overall health in the long term.
One of the big questions that comes up a lot is did we evolve as vegetarians or meat eaters? I mean, we've got these sharp canine teeth that look just perfect for digging into flesh, though large canines are not exclusive to carnivorous animals. It's thought they likely evolved more for intimidation and competition among mates as well as defense rather than for eating meat. And if we look at the diets of modern primates, the ones we're closely related to, like chimps, orangutans, and gorillas, you'll see that most of them have totally plant-based diets.
I love thinking about chimps being hipster vegans, like, oh, you don't have any soy milk, awkward. But seriously, if gorillas can get this jacked without the need for animal proteins, surely we're not meant to be eating meat. I mean, look at those muscles.
Because we branch off the same evolutionary tree as our primate contemporaries, surely we're also primarily vegetarian. We've also got bumpy colons, which sounds very glamorous, whereas carnivorous animals typically have a smooth colon.
But despite all these facts, the truth is there is no denying that our species turn to eating meat regularly. In fact, scientists estimate that our ancestors started eating meat around two million years ago, long before homo sapiens even existed. We've even found fossilized animal bones that were cut up for dinner that are around 2.5 million years old.
It's theorized that somewhere along the way, our environment changed. We weren't in a tropical forest anymore and didn't have access to as many plants that we could stomach. So we turned to meat to supplement that loss.
And of course, there are many theories about how meat shaped the human brain. But for now, all we need to know is that while we do come from plant eaters, we have been eating meat for millions of years. As long as we've been human, we've been eating meat.
So then, can we survive without meat at all? Some people might tell you that you simply can't get enough protein without meat, but that's really not true. You can get tons of protein from whole grains, nuts and beans, and for most people, this is more than enough. In fact, most research finds protein deficiency extremely rare, except in people who are simply not eating enough calories.
But what research has found is missing from a vegan diet is B12. Vitamin B12 is required by animals for a whole host of biological pathways and for normal functioning. And the thing is, you cannot get B12 from any vegetables.
There's zero B12 in a salad. You can find it in beef, pork, poultry, fish, eggs, et cetera. And studies find that B12 deficiencies are a big problem for a lot of vegans and vegetarians.
When your levels are low, it can impact brain functioning, energy, and mood, and at worst, it can cause full-on hallucinations. I mean, if that's what you're going for, maybe just try some psilocybin instead.
So if you're only consuming fruits and vegetables, it'll likely become a problem. Luckily, supplements are a thing. You can literally just take B12 pills and then you never have to worry about this.
The same can be said for other nutrient deficiencies that tend to pop up for vegans, like iron or omega-3s. There's even a ton of foods that are fortified with these to make vegan diets less of a risk. But another area that brings up some concern is bone strength.
If you grew up in the 90s and early 2000s, then you're more than aware of the many campaigns touting the health benefits of milk. Calcium is an essential part of the human diet because it helps your muscles and nerves function properly and keeps your bones good and strong. And when you don't have enough in your diet, your body actually ends up pulling it from your bones, which can potentially make your bones more likely to break.
Hence, cow's milk, which naturally contains calcium and is absorbed easily into the body, is often promoted for good, strong bones. And a research study from 2020 backed this up when it found that vegans have a much higher risk of breaking their bones than meat eaters. This was a study that followed around 2,000 vegans and compared them to non-vegans over the course of a few decades, and their risk of bone breaks was basically twice as likely.
But here's the weird part. When we look at countries that simply don't drink as much milk as a whole, this pattern doesn't hold. For example, in West Africa, consumption of dairy isn't that common, and yet they have extremely low rates of osteoporosis, like a fraction of a percent.
And a study that compared 40 countries' consumption of dairy also found that those who had little milk were not any more likely to break their hips. Even studies within the same country have found confusing results. When comparing heavy milk drinkers to light milk drinkers, there's really not a clear link between bone strength and breakage.
The truth is dairy isn't the only way to consume calcium. It's in lots of veggies like kale, bok choy, and broccoli, and there's even fortified foods like orange juice and cereal that contain it. But for vegans, even when studies account for calcium intake, those who were eating lots of calcium were still more likely to break bones.
So perhaps there is another environmental or situational factor outside of diet that's playing a role here and is yet unknown. It's worth bringing up that most of this data is on adults, and studies that do look at kids are much more clear-cut. Kids that drink milk break fewer bones than those who don't.
Finally, on the bad side, research has found that both vegans and vegetarians are at a higher risk for stroke. However, the overall risk is small, around three extra cases per 1,000 people over 10 years, and this particular study had many limitations, including quite a small sample, so it's difficult to draw major conclusions from it. So are there any specific health benefits to going vegan? Definitely.
A study on over 90,000 people found that vegans are less likely to develop high blood pressure, obesity, type 2 diabetes, some types of cancer, and are more likely to live longer. A vegan diet lowers cholesterol, and many of these foods contain a lot of antioxidant phytonutrients and nitrates versus some animal products which contain more pro-inflammatory fats. These anti-inflammatory effects are believed to be the reason vegan diets seem to minimize some autoimmune diseases.
In fact, Venus Williams, who suffers from Sjogren's syndromes, credits her vegan diet with minimizing the extreme fatigue associated with her condition. Some studies have even found a vegan diet to be one of the healthiest, outperforming even pescatarian and vegetarian diets, likely because of its higher fruit, vegetable, and legume intake. There was up to a 32% lower risk among those with the highest intake of plant-based foods for cardiovascular disease, even after adjusting for age, sex, race, education, health behaviors, alcohol intake, and exercise.
So yes, on average, the health of vegans does tend to be better. Of course, it's also possible that vegans are just generally more health-conscious to begin with. Vegans do tend to smoke less, drink less alcohol, and exercise more, and whether it's something bad in meat and dairy or helpful in all the extra veggies is yet to be determined.
Of course, it's worth pointing out that it's just as easy to be an unhealthy vegan, with all the options for junk and processed food nowadays, so in no way does going vegan necessitate a healthier diet automatically. The biggest question remaining is, can it make you a better athlete? A Nermy study following 8,000 runners from across Europe comparing meat-eaters, vegans, and vegetarians is currently testing this idea of improved endurance. Because veganism may boost immunity and aid in recovery and rehabilitation from injury, a lot of athletes are keen to take advantage of these perks.
Veggies like beetroot contain nitrates that aid in blood flow and oxygen transport through the body, but the problem right now is simply the lack of good data. There is very little data to support these claims right now, so studies are ongoing. At the very least, it's been shown that a well-planned vegan diet does meet the nutritional requirements for endurance athletes.
In other words, it's just as good at the very least as an omnivorous diet, whether it's optimal is yet to be determined. At the end of the day, what can we conclude from the available research? Well, on the one hand, a vegan diet is unequivocally better for the environment. And while it's a whole other conversation to talk about the responsibility of corporations and institutions versus individuals, as an individual, it is a simple step that you can take to minimize your impact, if that matters to you.
When it comes to diet, at worst, there could be some setbacks to your health, but those can typically be mitigated through careful planning and supplementation, and at best, it may actually be better for your overall health and well-being if you put in the effort to do it with intention and health in mind. I hope this video has been eye-opening for those of you who are curious. I know there's a lot of concern around companies capitalizing on claims that may or may not be exaggerated.
I think it's totally fair to be skeptical. The vegan market is estimated to hit 24 billion by 2026.
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