Just because you follow a vegetarian or vegan diet doesn’t mean you’re eating healthy.
“Plant-based diets are Associated with a lower risk of incident cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease mortality, and all-cause mortality in a general population of middle-aged adults”: This study of a diverse sample of 12,000 Americans found that “progressively increasing plant food intake by reducing animal food intake is associated with benefits on cardiovascular health and mortality.” Still, with respect to plant-based diets for cardiovascular disease prevention, “not all plant foods are created “same.” As you can see in the graph below and at minute 0:40 of my video Vegetarians and stroke risk factors: Vegan junk food?a British study found Vegetarians had a higher risk of stroke. Were they just eating a lot of vegan junk food?
“Any diet that lacks animal food sources can be reclaimed be vegetarian [or vegan] diet; therefore, it is important to determine” what is One of the first things I look at when trying to see how seriously a population takes healthy eating is something that is undeniably bad: soda, otherwise known as liquid candy. Anyone who drinks plain water with sugar in it does not have health as a priority.
A large-scale study was conducted on plant-based food consumers in the United States, where people tend to… cut People are against meat for health reasons much more than for ethical reasons, as you can see in the graph below and at 1:20 in my video. video.
Researchers found that flexitarians drink fewer sugary drinks than regular meat eaters, as do pescetarians, vegetarians and vegans, as you can see see down already at 1:30.
However, in the UK study where an increased risk of stroke was observed in vegetarians found and where people are most likely to go vegetarian or vegan for ethical reasons, according to researchers found that pescetarians drink less soft drinks, but vegetarians and vegans drink more, such as shown in the graph below and at minute 1:44.
I’m not saying that’s the reason they had more strokes; it just might give us an idea of how healthy their diet was. In the UK study, vegetarian and vegan men and women ate roughly the same amounts of desserts, cookies and chocolate, as you can see in the graph below and at minute 1:53.
They too accomplished roughly the same total amount of sugar, as shown below at 2:02.
In the US study, the average non-vegetarian is Vegetarians are almost obese, vegans are slightly obese, and vegetarians are the only group with an ideal weight. However, in this analysis of the UK study, everyone was about the same weight. The meat-eaters were lighter in weight than the vegans, as you can see below, and at minute 2:19 of my videoThe EPIC-Oxford study appears to have attracted a particularly “health-conscious” group of meat eaters who weigh substantially less than the general population.
Let’s look at some specific nutrients linked to stroke. Dietary fiber appears be beneficial for the prevention of cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, and seems The more the better, as you can see in the graph below and at minute 2:43 in my video.
According to studies carried out on almost half a million men and women, there is no seem to be an upper threshold of benefit, so again, “the more, the better.” With over 25 grams of soluble fiber and 47 grams of insoluble dietary fiber, can A significant reduction in the associated risk of stroke is beginning to be observed. These values could therefore be considered “as the minimum recommended daily intake of soluble and insoluble fibre… to prevent stroke at the population level.” This is what is seen in people eating Diets focused on minimally processed plant foods. Dr. Dean Ornish started his whole-foods plant-based diet around that time. It may not be as much as we’re designed to eat, based on fossilized feces analyses, but it’s about where we might expect a significantly lower risk of stroke, as shown below and at 3:25 in my video. video.
How many of the British were vegetarians? get? 22.1 grams. Now, in the UK, they measure fiber a little differently, so it may be About 30 grams, but that is not the optimal level for preventing strokes. It is so little fiber that vegetarians and vegans only need defeat Carnivores get rid of them with one or two bowel movements per week, as you can see below and at 3:48 in my video. videosuggesting that those who did not eat meat were eating Lots of processed foods.
Vegetarians were only eating approximately half an additional serving of fruits and vegetables. It is believed that the intake reduce stroke risk partly due to their potassium content, but UK vegetarians with the highest risk of stroke were eating So few vegetables and legumes that they couldn’t even match the meat-eaters. Vegetarians (and meat-eaters) didn’t even meet the minimum recommended daily potassium intake of 4,700 mg per day.
What about sodium? “The vast majority of available evidence indicates that high salt consumption is associated with an increased risk of stroke…” is There is virtually a straight-line increase in the risk of dying from a stroke the more salt you consume, as you can see in the graph below and at minute 4:29 of my post. video.
Even just overcast Reducing sodium intake by a small fraction each year could prevent tens of thousands of fatal strokes. “Reducing sodium intake to prevent strokes: time to act, not hesitate” was the title of the article, but vegetarians and vegans in the UK seemed to be hesitantLike the other dietary groups, “All groups exceeded “The recommended daily intake of sodium is less than 2,400 mg,” and that doesn’t even take into account added table salt! The American Heart Association recommends Less than 1,500 mg per day. So they were all eating a lot of processed foods. No wonder the vegetarians’ blood pressure was so high. were Just one or two points lower. High blood pressure is Perhaps “the most important potentially modifiable risk factor for stroke.”
What evidence do I have that vegetarians and vegans’ risk of stroke would decrease if they ate more healthily? Well, in rural Africa, where they could nail the fiber intake our bodies were designed to get from eating as many healthy, whole plant foods.including fruits, vegetables, grains, greens, legumes and proteins almost entirely from plant sources; not only was heart disease, our leading cause of death, “almost non-existent,” but was stroke. It came out of nowhere “with the introduction of salt and refined foods” into his diet.
“It is remarkable that stroke and senile dementia appear Being virtually absent in Kitava, an Oceanic culture. [near Australia] whose traditional quasi-vegan diet is very low in salt and very rich in potassium.” ate They ate fish a few times a week, but the remaining 95 percent or so of their diet consisted of vegetables, fruits, corn and beans. They had not suffered strokes, despite their ridiculously high smoking rates: 76 percent of the men and 80 percent of the women. evolved By eating just less than one-eighth of a teaspoon of salt a day, our daily potassium intake is believed to have been about 10,000 mg. was from a whole foods diet without salt to eating salty, processed, potassium-poor foods, whether we eat meat or not.
Caldwell Esselstyn at the Cleveland Clinic tried putting The study looked at about 200 patients with established cardiovascular disease who followed a whole-foods plant-based diet. Of the 177 who followed the diet, only one patient suffered a stroke in the following years, compared with a 100-fold higher rate of adverse events, including multiple strokes and deaths in those who abandoned the diet. “This is not vegetarianism,” Esselstyn said. explainsVegetarians can eat many foods that are not ideal, “such as milk, cream, butter, cheese, ice cream and eggs. This new paradigm is a purely plant-based nutrition.”
This whole line of thinking—that the reason typical vegetarians don’t have better stroke stats is because they don’t eat a particularly stellar diet—may explain why they don’t have significantly lower stroke rates. However, it still doesn’t explain why they can have higher Stroke rates are higher. Even if they eat a similar, salty, processed diet, at least they don’t eat meat, which we know increases stroke risk. There must be something about vegetarian diets that increases stroke risk so much that it counteracts their inherent advantages. We’ll continue our search for the answer below.
From a medical point of view, labels such as vegan and vegetarian Tell me what you don’t eat. It’s like identifying yourself as a “Non-Twinkie-tarian.” You don’t eat Twinkies? Great, but what’s the rest of your diet like?
What are the healthiest foods? Check out my Daily Dozen.
To catch up on the rest of this series, check out the related posts below.
