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Research increasingly shows there are health and ecological benefits to a plant-based diet. But is it the right choice for you?
By Savita Iyer
It is a truth, now more or less universally acknowledged, that a plant-based diet can do wonders for both your health and the health of the planet. And according to a new study published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences--the first of its kind to link both individual health and the Earth's--a vegan diet, which excludes meat, fish, poultry, eggs, and dairy, can really up the ante on both fronts. The study's results show that 8.1 million deaths can be avoided annually across the globe if more people adopt a vegan diet.
Veganism is now much more mainstream and its adoption by a greater number of Americans has been fueled by celebrities such as Beyonce and Jay Z and high profile personalities like Bill Clinton, who have gone the vegan route. According to a 2015 study conducted by the Vegetarian Resource Group, a non-profit organization dedicated to educating the public on vegetarianism and healthy eating, 1 million Americans above the age of 18 are now vegan and the numbers are growing.
Should you join their ranks? We break it down for you.
Pro: A vegan diet promotes weight loss.
One of the immediate results of adopting a vegan diet is weight loss and this, says Reed Mangels, a registered dietitian and lecturer in nutrition at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, is a definite positive that attracts many people to veganism. A vegan diet is much lower in calories than even a vegetarian diet, Mangels says, "because in addition to knocking out the meat, you're also knocking out high fat dairy products."
Monica Montag, a certified nutritionist and founder of holistic nutrition practice BeWell Associates in State College, PA, attributes the weight loss that results from adopting a vegan diet to the much lower fat content in vegetables, fruits and grains as compared to meat and dairy. Fat, Montag says, also has a much higher volume of calories per gram (there are 9 calories in a gram of fat) than carbohydrates, where the calories-to-gram ratio is 4-to-1, so a diet made up of fruits, vegetables and grains is much lighter.