Vegan??

Many people where I live have turned towards becoming vegan, organic, vegetarian, or gluten free. All those people have very strong views on why they decided to change their diet, and tend to be very opinionated about the reasonings of why this is the case, all for different reasons.  I never really understood how or why someone would want to be a vegan, but all those I talk to about this topic say it is a much healthier diet and more humane.  Where are these people getting all their nutrients from that others get from consuming meat?  With this question in mind I decided to take a closer look on all things vegan.

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Percent of Vegans and Vegetarians in the U.S. in 2013

Protein is the main nutrient coming from meat and the main food that vegans give up when deciding to change their eating life style.  There are other foods, though, that vegans can get these nutrients from such as beans, quinoa, tofu, peanut butter ect.  Individuals, though, do not need large quantities of protein as a part of their diet; only 1 in every 10 calories need to contain a protein base.  “For example, a vegan male weighing 174 pounds could have a calorie requirement of 2,600 calories and only need 284 calories from protein.” B-12, coming from animal protein, is the most lacking nutrient, though, that vegans loose on a daily basis.  Even if vegans are able to get protein from other foods is this a fully safe change in diet?

In 1999 Meta-Analysis study compared vegan death rates to non-vegans.

Alternative hypothesis:  death rate is higher in non-vegan eaters than vegan eaters

Null hypothesis: death rate is equal of those non-vegans and vegans

This study was conducted with 753 individuals varying from living in North America and Europe.  What was discovered was vegans had a heart disease rate of .74 and a mortality rate of 1.00 ; only 68 vegan deaths.  Non-vegans had a heart disease and death rate of 1.00, nearly the same as vegan eaters, showing no significant difference between the two death rates.  Although this study found no substancial difference between the two this experiment could have been conducted differently to find more accurate results.  Two groups could have been formed with one as a control group and the other as the experimental.  Both groups starting as people who have a regular diet to start and then half of these individuals change to a vegan diet for a year while the other group keeps a regular diet.  These individuals would be tested prior and post the experiment on different diseases, heart rate, blood pressure levels ect.  So this experiment, I believe is not fully reliable without further experimentation and still unknown if being a vegan is a safe, healthy alternative to a typical diet.

“People are very sensitive about their diets, especially when you challenge what they have always believed,” dietitian Julieanna Hever, RD.  This is a big reason why there are not too many studies conducted about this topic.  More research would have to occur and society would have to become more accepting about the fact that people have different ideas and values when regarding their diets.  This is the same for vegan eaters, they cannot push their values about veganism onto others, because this can cause others to be less accepting about what vegans believe in.

4 thoughts on “Vegan??

  1. Shannon G Mcclain

    I applaud those who are vegan because I think it takes a lot of planning and practice until one becomes comfortable with it, especially if they were originally non-vegan and/or non-vegatarian. I think the studies results is interesting and contradicts what most people might believe about vegans being healthier. However, I think your proposed experiment, though it seems better in terms of determining the differences in health, will have many third party variables that could affect the results. Though the prior base testing could check for any of these variables, there is no guarantee about how a change in diet will affect them. Like the person in the first comment wrote, a vegan diet could negatively affect someone and they would be forced to quit the study. They wrote that this could be due to the way she was dieting and constructing her meals, so in your proposed study, researchers could arrange the meals for those being tested in order to potentially avoid these problems.

  2. Samantha Elizabeth Schmitt

    I thought your comparison study was really interesting. During blog period one, I wrote an article comparing vegetarians and meat lovers (https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/2015/09/06/vegetarians-vs-meat-eaters/). Part of my blog also focused on how vegetarians could lose protein from their diet, but what I also found was that eating red meat has been linked to cause cancer (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3048091/). It would have been interesting if you could find a study comparing vegans and non vegan cancer rates, and not just deaths. This study (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23169929) from Loma Loma University found that vegans have a lower cancer rate than both meat eaters and non meat eaters. Super interesting!

  3. Kristen

    I found this to be interesting considering my good friend is a vegan and I’ve always wondered how vegans are capable of receiving the same nutrients as people who can consume meat and dairy. I think that as long as vegans are aware of what proteins they are missing, they can use alternative food sources or even take supplements to make up for their loss of food. I know my friend who’s a vegan takes b12 supplements. The Vegan society posted a recommendation of how to properly receive enough b12 without the need of supplements, but also lists possible supplements best for vegans. The link is down below:
    https://www.vegansociety.com/resources/nutrition-health/vitamins-minerals-and-nutrients/vitamin-b12-your-key-facts/what-every-vegan-should-know-about-vitamin-b12

  4. elb5372

    I really like how this blog post was constructed. The study seems to have supported the null hypothesis, meaning there was no difference in death rates for vegans and non-vegans. I also like how you dissected the study to conclude that it may not be the most reliable to base any major decision off of; and I agree.

    I had a friend who decided to go vegan in early May of this year, but was forced to stop in the middle of August because she felt that she was sick and becoming weak. I find this to be surprising, although it very well could have been due to the way she was dieting and constructing meals.

    Overall, I really liked you article and it sparked different thoughts that I may have on vegans and the lifestyle that they choose.

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