THE vegan diet – or vegan – is it really better for your health? While its advocates claim that it would be the best to follow by reducing diabetes by almost 60% or decreasing the incidence of certain cancers including colon cancer, growing evidence shows that it is in fact not the case. According to Vidalveganism is even “incompatible with a balanced diet since he is “necessarily deficient in vitamin B12“which plays a major role in the formation of red blood cells and the renewal of certain cells.
Deficiencies also in calcium, iron, zinc or even iodine, which exposes vegans to various health problems if they do not supplement enough. “If the well-constructed vegetarian diet poses few health problems and even has advantages over the western meat diet, the same is not true of the vegan diet which, beyond the inevitable deficiency in vitamin B12 and of more subtle deficiencies, weakens the bone status”continues the Vidal.
Vegan products sometimes too high in sugar or salt
Likewise, some vegan foods designed to taste the same as the products they replace — like plant-based “steaks” and “milks,” for example — may actually taste just as bad, or even worse. Stuffed with bad oils or ingredients too high in saturated fat, sugar or saltthey may contain far more calories and fewer essential nutrients than animal products.
Finally, the best diet remains to maintain a balanced diet, based on five servings of fruits and vegetables a day, consume starches, dairy products and eat legumes. It is recommended not to exceed a daily dose of 6g of salt. And before starting a vegan diet, a medical advice is required.
Sources:
- Vegetarian diets: what benefits and what risks for health?, VidalOctober 2021
- Vegetarian and vegan diets and risks of total and site-specific fractures: results from the prospective EPIC-Oxford study, BMC MedicineNovember 2020
- Risks of ischaemic heart disease and stroke in meat eaters, fish eaters, and vegetarians over 18 years of follow-up: results from the prospective EPIC-Oxford study, British Medical Journal2019
- Association between meatless diet and depressive episodes: A cross-sectional analysis of baseline data from the longitudinal study of adult health (ELSA-Brasil), Journal of Affective Disorders2023
