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Health Benefits of a Plant-Based Diet

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Main Concepts

COUNTLESS STUDIES SHOW the benefits of a vegan diet. According to the research, people who eat vegan have lower cholesterol, blood pressure, and body mass index and are less likely to be obese than those who consume meat regularly. And the evidence also indicates that vegan and vegetarian diets are effective at both preventing and treating several different chronic diseases, like type 2 diabetes, Parkinson’s disease, and rheumatoid arthritis, and vegans are at lower risk for colon cancer and heart disease.

What makes vegan diets such a one-stop shop for treating and preventing chronic disease? Well, those who follow a plant-based diet consume less saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, and more complex carbohydrates, dietary fiber, magnesium, folic acid, carotenoids, and vitamins C and E. 

Our Take

Aside from the substantial health benefits of eating a plant-based diet, there are some less obvious reasons to consider this lifestyle. It saves money, since meat and dairy tend to be more expensive than vegan foods like beans, veggies, fruits, and grains. Beans and grains can be purchased in bulk at a substantial savings.

Eating vegan also reduces your global footprint. Livestock farming has a huge impact on the environment in the form of land and freshwater use and greenhouse gas emission from the animals themselves and also from the fossil fuels used to process and transport them and their feed.

Further Reading