Vegan for Life: Everything You Need to Know to Be Healthy on a Plant-based Diet

by Jack Norris

We also recommend limiting foods, such as some vegan margarines, that have added palm oil or palm kernel oil, other plant sources of saturated fat.

There is evidence, too, that vegans have reduced levels of chronic inflammation.

While the research hasn’t shown consistently less heart disease among vegans, there is still considerable interest in using vegan and near-vegan diets as part of a lifestyle approach to treating people who already have heart disease.

Higher-fat foods like almonds, walnuts, and olive oil are all associated with improved HDL function.

The factor that predicted reduced plaque in the arteries was reduced blood pressure, which was a result of weight loss.38 It may be that simply eating a vegan diet that includes a variety of healthful plant foods, aimed in particular at reducing blood pressure and blood cholesterol levels, is the key to reversing heart disease.

Tree nuts in particular, like almonds, walnuts, and pecans, provide the type of fats that reduce blood cholesterol levels. They are also especially high in arginine, an amino acid that is a precursor to nitric oxide, a naturally occurring compound that helps protect the endothelial lining. Many studies have linked regular nut consumption to lower risk for heart disease.39

Extra-virgin olive oil is a unique source of oleocanthal, the phytochemical that gives this oil its characteristic peppery bite. One theory is that the key benefit of good-quality olive oil is that it makes vegetables taste so good that people eat more of them. But oleocanthal adds more than flavor; it’s an antioxidant that may reduce heart disease risk by lowering inflammation in the body.

vegans are typically closer to their ideal body weight than omnivores, despite their higher carbohydrate intakes.

The lower BMIs of vegans in this study explain some of the protection but even when we take BMI out of the picture, vegans still have a lower risk for diabetes. This tells us that there are aspects of vegan eating patterns that have direct benefits in lowering risk for diabetes.

Include one to two servings of nuts in your daily menu since they help reduce LDL-cholesterol and have other heart-healthy factors.

Talk to your doctor about alcohol. Moderate intake may improve the function of HDL-cholesterol. But for women, even low levels of alcohol consumption can put them at a higher risk for breast cancer.

A low intake of vitamin B12 might also raise risk for depression through its effects on homocysteine levels, although there is a lot of debate about this (see here). Vitamin B6 is important for mental health, too, since it is needed for the neurotransmitter serotonin.

A traditional Mediterranean diet is linked to better mood and there is some evidence that both vegetarians and vegans experience better mood and less depression.51–56

While, on average, vegans have vitamin D levels in the healthy range, they tend to be lower than omnivores. And we suspect that some vegans may struggle with depression for reasons that have nothing to do with their diet but are related more to a heightened sense of empathy and compassion.

If you use added fats in your meals, choose extra-virgin olive oil most often. Perhaps because of its anti-inflammatory properties, it has been linked to lower risk of depression.

Make sure you get enough vitamin

In contrast to the possible protective effects of plant foods, certain animal foods may raise cancer risk.

While vegetarian meats should be restricted for people with chronic kidney disease because of their high contents of sodium and protein, they can play a role in the diet of people on dialysis because they provide high-quality protein.

A vegan diet is more difficult for people on dialysis because of the need to restrict potassium and phosphorus, while at the same time ensuring adequate protein intake.

“We now know that humans have evolved not to subsist on a single, Paleolithic diet but to be flexible eaters, an insight that has important implications for the current debate over what people today should eat in order to be healthy.[…] What is remarkable about human beings is the extraordinary variety of what we eat. We have been able to thrive in almost every ecosystem on the Earth, consuming diets ranging from almost all animal foods among populations of the Arctic to primarily tubers and cereal grains among populations in the high Andes.”70

This remarkable variety of eating patterns is good news for those of us navigating food choices in our increasingly complex world. Early humans had to be concerned only with getting enough food to survive through child-rearing years. Today, when we make dietary choices, we’re thinking about the impacts not just on nutrient needs, but also on global warming, dwindling natural resources, world hunger, and animal welfare. A vegan diet is the most logical response.

A number of studies show that cutting carbs can be effective for people with diabetes in particular.

Ketogenic diets restrict carbohydrates to extremely low levels, as little as 30 grams per day in some cases (compared to typical recommendations of about 225 to 300 grams).

And, because a ketogenic diet is an extremely restrictive approach that eliminates whole categories of healthy plant foods, it’s not likely to be a long-term solution for most people. That makes it more of a fad diet with a focus on weight loss than a lifestyle approach with a focus on health and enjoyment.

There is intriguing research suggesting that there might be important differences in the microbiota activity of people eating plant-based diets compared to those who regularly eat meat.

Another example is that vegans might not generate TMAO, a compound that has been linked to risk for heart disease and that depends on intestinal bacteria for its production.4 And vegetarians (including vegans) might have enhanced production of equol, a health-promoting compound that is created when intestinal bacteria metabolize isoflavones in soyfoods (see Chapter 9).

That’s good news since a high-fiber diet is linked to a lower risk for many chronic diseases and can help with weight control. But a sudden increase in fiber intake can sometimes cause bloating, cramping, and gas. It’s important to make sure you’re drinking plenty of fluids to help relieve those symptoms. It may also help to include some refined grains in your diet along with well-cooked vegetables at the beginning of your transition to a vegan diet. Gradually increasing your consumption of fiber-rich plant foods can give your body time to adjust.

About one in one hundred people worldwide have celiac disease, which is an autoimmune reaction to gluten that damages the small intestine.

The low-FODMAP diet limits many foods that are common in vegan diets. This creates a challenge but not an insurmountable one. A quick search on the internet reveals that many vegans have successfully used this diet to reduce their symptoms of IBS.

It wouldn’t be possible to eliminate them completely (unless you ate an all-meat diet) but, if you suffer from IBS, a low-FODMAP diet can help you determine if you need to reduce some of these carbohydrates.