A groundbreaking study of identical twins has provided further valuable evidence that switching to a vegan diet can significantly improve heart health within a month.
Researchers at Stanford University studied 22 pairs of identical twins, each of whom ate different amounts of meat and fish before starting the experiment.
One was prescribed a healthy vegan diet and the other was prescribed a healthy omnivore diet.
After a month, those following the vegan diet had “significantly lower” levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), insulin and body weight – all of which are associated with improved cardiovascular health – than the omnivorous participants.
Their cholesterol levels dropped from an average of 110.7 mg/dL (milligrams per 100 milliliters) to 95.5, with the optimal level for health being less than 100. Those who ate a mixture of meat and plant foods dropped from 118 .5 mg/dl to 116.1.
This is the first study of the benefits of a vegan diet for identical twins, circumventing problems with previous research in this area, which is often hampered by factors such as genetic differences, parenting and lifestyle choices. The twins grew up in the same family and led a similar lifestyle.
In doing so, it confirms the results of two important previous studies that showed that a vegan diet can reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease in just four to eight weeks.
One of them, also from Stanford and published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that “among [36] In generally healthy adults, when plant and animal intakes were compared, plant foods improved some cardiovascular disease risk factors, including TMAO, while all other dietary components remained similar.”
TMAO – or trimethylamine N-oxide – is a substance that increases the risk of heart disease, and the study found that after eight weeks it was “significantly lower” in people following a plant-based diet.
Another large study found that vegetarian and vegan diets reduce cholesterol and blood fats, which lead to heart attacks.
This study included 30 studies involving nearly 2,400 people dating back to 1982, in which researchers gave volunteers a fixed diet and tracked its effects on heart health.
The results, published in May in the European Heart Journal, showed that a vegetarian and vegan diet reduced bad cholesterol levels by 10 percent, total cholesterol by 7 percent and apolipoprotein B—the main protein in bad cholesterol—by 14 percent.
High levels of bad cholesterol lead to fatty deposits in the arteries, which can ultimately cause heart attacks or strokes.
But even with extensive research and the benefits of the latest twin studies, there is still much to be learned about the exact benefits of a vegan diet for heart health.
This is because it is extremely difficult to conduct food health research at any scale and over any time period due to the difficulty of monitoring and controlling people’s diets, as well as accounting for the many other health and lifestyle factors that influence the outcome.
Professor Edin Cassidy, from Queen’s University Belfast, said the new study of identical twins, however small, certainly “adds to evidence from population studies and trials that a plant-rich diet plays an important role in maintaining weight and improving health.” ” “Heart health.”
Tracey Parker, senior nutritionist at the British Heart Foundation (BHF), said the latest research “provides further evidence that including more plant-based foods in our diet is beneficial for our heart health.”
But as Professor Kazem Rahimi from the University of Oxford points out, there is a problem with this new study, as with other previous studies, namely that the vegan group ended up consuming significantly fewer calories than the omnivores. In other words, simply cutting back on calories, both animal and animal based, may be the key here.
“This may explain many of the differences in cardiovascular disease risk factors,” he said.
“In other words, I could replace the words ‘omnivore vs. vegan’ in the title with ‘calorie-dense vs. high-calorie’ and the story would still be relevant.
“Unfortunately, research cannot distinguish the harmful effects of a high-calorie, high-fat diet from a diet without meat or animal products.”
Asked whether he believed a vegan diet was beneficial for cardiovascular health, based on his research and knowledge in the field, Professor Rahimi replied: “I think the jury is still out. If you think of veganism as everything “What is associated with it, for example, less fat and fewer calories, then yes. Otherwise, we simply will not know – even after this investigation.”
Source: I News
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