The vegan or vegan diet it is a diet that totally excludes products of animal origin. It is talked about more and more often and many people for environmental, ethical or health reasons choose this 100% vegetable style of food.
A group of American researchers compared a diet based solely on products of vegetable origin and low-fat with the famous Mediterranean diet. And he would have discovered that the vegan one, unlike the Mediterranean, would guarantee better advantages in terms of weight loss and against thehypercholesterolemia. The Vegan diet is one of many protein diets for lose weight and lose weight.
Basically based on protein-rich foods, the protein diet is considered to be one of the most effective for weight loss. Carbohydrates and, to a lesser extent, fats are banned. In fact, it belongs to the group of so-called Low Carb diets (“low in carbohydrates”). Stimulates the metabolism and helps to burn more calorie. It allows you to lose weight without compromising muscle mass. The protein diet has in fact evolved from a diet with a high content of purely animal proteins, to a diet characterized mainly by vegetable proteins. There is also the variant vegan of the protein diet. In this case the proteins derive only and exclusively from foods of vegetable origin, such as legumes, cereals and pseudocereals.
Nutrition is an untouchable element that, put in the right place, can lead to the desired result. Translated, it means that what you eat affects different aspects of your body, it helps you keep weight under control and to keep your system in good working order cardiocirculatory. But nutrition also interferes with bad cholesterol levels.
At this point you may be wondering where to place this element, or what should you eat and which diet would be better to follow?
Researchers from the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington have also wondered.
To find an effective answer especially against hypercholesterolemia, they compared the Mediterranean diet and the vegan diet and in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition they demonstrated their effectiveness. In the study, the American researchers analyzed the benefits of the two types of diet by dividing the enrolled patients into two groups: one treated with a vegan diet, the other with the Mediterranean one for a period of 16 weeks.
The Vegan Diet
The diet based only on plant foods included a low fat content, obviously no original animal products and high quantities of fruit, vegetables, cereals and legumes. In addition to fruit, vegetables, legumes, those who were included in the “Mediterranean” group also fed on dairy products, fish and extra virgin olive oil, limiting however red meat and saturated fats. The results would have shown that a vegan diet, with low concentrations of fat, would be more effective than the Mediterranean one in terms of weight loss, insulin sensitivity and, indeed, cholesterol levels.
The vegan diet would have reduced total cholesterol and that LDL of 18.7 mg / dL and 15.3 mg / dL respectively. In addition, the patients of the “vegan” group would have lost an average of 6kg compared to the others who, on the other hand, would not have seen any change on the scale. Other results in favor of the vegan diet: 3.4 kg of fat loss, a more marked reduction in visceral fat. The Mediterranean diet, on the other hand, would have recorded a more marked decrease in blood pressure. According to American researchers, the strong point of the vegan diet would be linked to the reduction in calorie intake and increased fiber intake.
I vegans, despite what the cliché still wants, they don’t just eat pasta and salads. There are so many foods that you can insert daily varying according to the seasons as regards fruit and vegetables but also by changing types of cereals, legumes and oil seeds in order not to make your diet monotonous.
Contraindications of the vegan diet
That vegans take little protein and therefore may be deficient in these essential substances for our body is now a commonplace, the only real contraindication for those who follow a 100% vegetable diet is a possible lack of vitamin B12 if not correctly integrated through fortified foods or directly via a supplement. Other types of contraindications and side effects do not exist if you follow a well balanced and varied diet. Do-it-yourself is best avoided in the case of pregnant and breastfeeding women and small children.
It is clear, however, that the Mediterranean diet however, it remains a cornerstone of our diet.
As we have often written to you in our previous articles, following it does not only mean respecting a diet but choosing a healthy and balanced lifestyle.
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