
Imagine that a new medication is developed that gets hailed as a “miracle drug.” Studies conducted on it show that it has numerous health benefits, such as decreasing the risk of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and cancers. Other benefits include improving cognitive function, alleviating the symptoms of osteoarthritis, aiding in weight loss, and a large number of other benefits. If this medication existed, how many people do you think would be flocking to the nearest pharmacy to get their hands on it? Sadly, this medication does not exist, but if it did, it would surely save countless lives. However, there is something that exists that does have all of these health benefits and it is available to everyone. It may not be as simple as taking a pill, and some may find the change harder than others, but once you get accustomed, you realize that it is actually very easy to do. Eating a vegan diet provides all of these benefits and more, and all you have to do is eat food.

A vegan diet is one where no animal products are consumed, as opposed to a vegetarian diet where no meat is consumed but some animal products are, or an omnivorous diet where meat and other animal products are consumed. There have been many studies into how important our diet is to our health, and what are the best foods we should be eating. As more and more of these studies are concluding, there is a mound of evidence that a vegan diet is the best option for people interested in being healthy. With each study, that mound of evidence is becoming a mountain.

In 2015, the World Health Organization listed processed meat as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning it is carcinogenic to humans (Bouvard et al.). This report by the World Health Organization also listed unprocessed red meat as a Group 2 carcinogen, or “probably carcinogenic to humans” (Bouvard et al.). Processed meats are any meat that has been treated by salting, curing, smoking, or any other process to enhance its flavor or to preserve it. Processed meats share this group with things like tobacco and asbestos. In an interview published in the Los Angeles Magazine with Dr. Mariana Stern, one of the researchers on the panel that classified processed meats, Mary Melton wrote that Dr. Stern had this to say about processed meat.

Even though processed meats now share the same category as tobacco smoke, the level of risk from processed meats is not nearly as large as that of tobacco smoke. …We know that diet may contribute up to 30 percent of the cancer burden. Diet is the second modifiable risk factor after tobacco smoke. Given that most cancers are caused by multiple factors that act jointly, and likely in different combinations in different people, the more we know about modifiable risk factors that we can change, the more we can reduce the cancer burden in the population (qtd. in Melton).

So even though processed meat does not carry the same level of risk as some other Group 1 carcinogens, you should not pair it with other cancer causing agents such as air pollution, another Group 1 carcinogen. 

The evidence against meat shows that it is bad for us, but that isn’t enough to say whether or not a plant based diet is any better. A group of researchers headed by Mingyang Song also had this realization, and set out to compare mortality rates among those who consume animal protein and those who consume plant proteins. In their work, Association of Animal and Plant Protein Intake With All-Cause and Cause-Specific Mortality, they measured levels of intake to determine if an increase in either form of protein altered the mortality levels. The results showed that an increase in animal protein did not result in a raise of all causes of mortality but did have a sharp rise in heart related illness mortality (Song). The results for plant protein showed a decrease in all causes of mortality (Song). Therefore, a vegan diet decreases your chances of dying from health-related reasons, especially when compared against those who get their protein from animals. 

In the study, Comparative effectiveness of plant-based diets for weight loss: A randomized controlled trial of five different diets, an effort was made to determine which diet would lead to the greatest weight loss. This study compared not just vegan, vegetarian, and omnivore diets, but also pesco-vegetarian and semi-vegetarians. A pesco-vegetarian diet is one where the only animal protein source is fish, and a semi-vegetarian diet is where there is occasional meat intake. At the start of this study a baseline was established for each dietary group and follow-ups were conducted two and six months later. At two months, those following the vegan, vegetarian, and pesco-vegetarian diets fared the best in terms of how much weight they had lost (Turner-McGrievy et al.). The omnivore and semi-vegetarian groups had lost weight, but it was less than the other three groups, with the omnivore group losing the least amount of weight (Turner-McGrievy et al.). At the six-month point in the study, the vegan group was far and away the leader, with the vegetarian group in second (Turner-McGrievy et al.). The pesco-vegetarian group had fared worse than at the two month point and was essentially tied with the semi-vegetarian and omnivore groups at half of the weight loss of the vegan group (Turner-McGrievy et al.). Physical activity among all five groups was self-reported and not significantly different among any of the groups, meaning it was not a factor that needed to be considered (Turner-McGrievy et al.). The foods we eat make a difference if our goal is to lose weight. That is especially evidenced here in a study that was able to eliminate exercise as a factor.

In his TEDx Talk, Power Foods for the Brain, Dr. Neal Barnard discusses the effects of saturated fats on the mental faculties of humans. He starts by explaining that the foods with the largest amounts of saturated fats are dairy and cheese, with meat being second. He then gives the results of studies showing that adults who consumed less saturated fats have a much lower risk of developing Alzheimer’s, and even another less severe condition referred to as Mild Cognitive Impairment (Barnard). He discusses that a gene exists that alone can increase a person’s risk of Alzheimer’s by three times if they inherited it from one parent and 10-15 times if inherited from both. This gene is named the APOEε4 allele. He informs the audience that the researchers who conducted the study about saturated fats on Mild Cognitive Impairment did a similar study focused on individuals who had the APOEε4 allele in their genetic code to see if saturated fats had any effect of the development of Mild Cognitive Impairment or Alzheimer’s. The results of the study showed a massive difference between those who consumed lower amounts of saturated fat, and those who consumed higher amounts of saturated fats (Barnard). Even those with the APOEε4 allele which should condemn them to a life of impaired cognitive function, had their risk of development dropped by 80% according to Dr. Barnard. “Genes are not destiny,” is said by Dr. Barnard, which is an incredibly appropriate summary of the evidence he presented.

According to Dr. Bernard in the same video, eating Vitamin E and other forms of antioxidants is another way to combat these symptoms aside from cutting out saturated fats. The best foods to eat that contain antioxidants are fruits and vegetables with bright colors. Things like sweet potatoes, blueberries, grapes, spinach, etc. are excellent sources, and necessary because supplement forms Vitamin E do not need to contain all eight forms to be labeled as Vitamin E. Not consuming all the forms of Vitamin E can lead to the body rejecting the other forms not consumed, and doing harm in the long term. When shopping for food, the phrase to keep in mind is “eat the rainbow.” This will insure that you are getting all necessary vitamin forms to function as a healthy individual.

In the Vegetarian diets in the Adventists Health Study 2: A Review of Initial Published Findings study, over 69,000 participants were followed over a period of 5 years. A number of different health related areas were compared between meat eaters and non-meat eaters, though the main area of focus for this study was cancer rates between the groups for all types of cancers. The participants were divided into a meat eating group and various vegetarian groups. The vegetarian groups were vegan, pesco-vegetarian, semi-vegetarian, and lacto-ovo-vegetarian which is a diet consisting of no meat but where milk and eggs are consumed. First, the rates of cancer were compared between those who ate meat and four different vegetarian groups; they found a significantly lower rate of all cancers in the vegetarian group (Orlich and Fraser). They then compared the different vegetarian groups to see if there was a difference in the rates of cancer between them. The vegan group had the lowest rate of all cancers out of all of the vegetarian groups including rates of female-specific cancers (Orlich and Fraser). I am not trying to claim that a vegan diet can cure cancer, doing so would be misinterpreting the information provided. The information shows that a vegan diet reduces the risk of developing cancer. Either that, or an omnivore diet increases the risk of cancer. No matter which way you interpret the data, it becomes clear that a vegan diet is the one to choose.

Dr. Neal Barnard headed a study in 2006 to determine whether or not a vegan diet, or the recommended diet from the American Diabetes Association did a better job of helping diabetics be healthy. The study divided participants into two groups, half followed the diet recommended by the ADA and the other half followed a vegan diet suggested by Dr. Barnard and his colleagues. The health of both groups improved overall, though the vegan group fared better in terms of Body Mass Index, waist circumference, weight, total cholesterol, A1C levels, and LDL cholesterol (Barnard et al.). A1C is a test to determine blood levels, and LDL is considered the “bad” cholesterol as compared to HDL. By comparing the vegan diet and the ADA recommended diet directly, Dr. Barnard is able to prove the benefits of a vegan diet compared to what is currently advised. Yet, despite this, the ADA still recommends meat and dairy, in the form of lean meat, fish, poultry, and non-fat dairy, on their official website as foods to include in a healthy diet (Diabetes Meal Plans). 

In a study headed by Dr. Caldwell Esselstyn titled A Way To Reverse CAD?, patients with advanced cardiovascular illness were asked to switch to a vegan diet. These patients would continue to take any medication that was prescribed to them by their doctor, but it is worth noting that these patients were already taking this medication before the diet change and in many cases their condition was worsening. Of those that participated, 89% adhered to the diet change (Esselstyn et al.). Of those 89%, only 1 participant had a cardiovascular related event in the four years after changing their diet (Esselstyn et al.). So, with a 99.6% success of reversing cardiovascular illness, it becomes clear that the best way to cure heart disease is to treat what is causing the disease, not the symptoms, by changing the food we eat.

Dr. Esselstyn also published the stories of three of the patients who participated in his study in a paper titled The nutritional reversal of cardiovascular disease-fact or fiction? In all three cases mentioned, the patients had undergone multiple surgeries over a number of years, had tried many different medications, and nothing had helped improve their health. All three had been told by their doctors that there was nothing more that can be done for them. They weren’t ready to give up the fight though. They sought out information and that led them to participate in this study. All three of the participant had greatly reduced their illnesses to the point where they no longer even had chest pain in just four months. After participating in this study, one of the three even reversed his severe diabetes to the point that he no longer needed insulin injections. These three stories were picked because they showed the greatest results and turnaround out of all of the participants. These three men were told that there was nothing more that modern medicine could do for them, but their refusal to give up hope and their willingness to give up such a small aspect of themselves led to them saving their own lives. 

When I was around six years old my paternal grandfather passed away from his third heart attack. His cousin passed away from a heart attack when I was a teenager. Nearly all of my paternal relatives have heart related illness or have passed away due to a heart related illness. My maternal Uncle passed away from an aortic aneurysm before either of his parents passed. My maternal grandfather is required to wear a pacemaker, has had multiple hospital stays, cannot live on his own, and as a result I have accepted that the last time I said goodbye to him could very well be the last hug I will get from “Pappy Oldschool.” Last year, my father had an irregularity in his heart beat that required further inspection; luckily, it turned out to be nothing. With a family history of heart disease inherited on both sides, I have realized the likely result of my eventual passing.

The information I have shared is not just for my benefit however, it is also for the benefit of you. I don’t care just for my own life, I care for the lives of all those around me. I believe that a vegan diet will save my life from the terrifying future I see for its end, as much as I believe it can save many others. Upon completion of this project, I will be sending all of my research to my father in an effort to convince him to change his diet and prolong his life. Listening to Dr. Neal Barnard speak about how he wished he could go back in time and save his father from years of suffering struck me to my core. I realized that I can do what he wishes he can for his own father. I hope that I am convincing enough to persuade my father to change this one small aspect of his life, just as I have the same hope for you. 
