The Benefits of a Vegan Diet - Health - Nutrition

Disclaimer: Consult your physician before starting any diet or exercise program, or before taking any dietary supplements. This article is NOT medical advice.

Personal Benefits

There are many reasons to follow a vegan diet, but the most appealing reason is that vegans live significantly longer (Sing, et al. 2003) than meat-eaters, and significantly reduce their risk of developing many major diseases (Leitzmann 2005). There are also numerous long-term health benefits that can be reaped from following a vegan diet, including: reduced risk of heart disease (Burr, Butland 1988), type 2 diabetes (Jenkins, et al. 2003), prostate cancer (Araki, et al. 1983), colon cancer (Willett, et al. 1990), breast cancer (Ingram, et al. 1997), arthritis (Kjeldsen-Kragh 1999), and many otherco common ailments. In addition to the long-term benefits, there are a multitude of fantastic short-term benefits as well, including: lower body mass index (BMI), weight loss (Appleby et al. 1998), higher energy levels, less body odor, and healthier skin and nails. Many people who make the switch also report fewer migraines and allergies. Not surprisingly, diets that consist prima rily of meat and/or animal-derived, products have been found to have the opposite effect(s) on human health.

Environmental Benefits

Following a vegan diet uses fewer resources and produces less pollution. To understand how much a vegan diet can potentially decrease your environmental impact, take a look at the costs of a meat-based diet.

Producing meat requires tremendous resources, such as grain, water, and fossil fuels. Nearly 4-7 pounds of feedstuff and approximately 442 gallons of water are needed to produce one pound of pork or beef (Beckett, Oltjen 1993); Compare that with just 14 gallons of water needed to produce one pound of wheat. As you can see, this is a grossly inefficient system, because these same grain and water resources would stretch a great deal further if they were provided to humans instead of animals.

In addition to the consumable resources, food-animal production requires incredibly large amounts of fossil fuels in order to transport: animals, livestock feed, and meat products to grocery stores and restaurants. Gram-for-gram, the production of animal protein (from grain-fed animals) requires approximately 8-times as much fossil-fuel-energy as does the production of plant protein (Segelken 1997). On a small scale, it requires the equivalent of 930 gallons of gasoline to feed an average family of four for one year-- in the developed world (Oliver 2008). And, it is estimated that more than 1/3 of all fossil fuels produced in the United States are used for animal agriculture.

In addition to the fossil-fuel consumption used in animal agriculture, and resultant pollution, food-animals also directly produce an incredibly large amount of waste products. They produce megatons of feces and methane; livestock can produce 250 to 500 Liters of methane per day (Johnson, Johnson 1995), which threaten waterways and air quality.

And finally, food-animals are typically born, raised, and slaughtered in unsanitary, inhumane, and disgusting factory farms. Factory farms are facilities that are used to produce food-animals. Large numbers of animals are housed closely together, in unsanitary living spaces. Factory farm animals often mutilated to adapt them to factory conditions, e.g. cutting off beaks of chickens and turkeys, and amputating tails from cows and pigs (website: farmsanctuary.org). Housing unnaturally large numbers of animals in such small living spaces creates unsanitary living conditions, which leads to diseases and infections, so the animals are given antibiotics to ward off diseases and infections, as well as hormones to make them grow faster.

By following a vegan diet, you can ensure that you are wasting fewer resources, producing less pollution, and causing less animal suffering-- all the while improving your own health and wellbeing.

Works Cited

Appleby, P.N.; Thorogood, M; Mann, J. I; Key, T.J. Low body mass index in non-meat eaters : the possible roles of animal fat, dietary fibre and alcohol. International Journal of Obesity, Volume 22, No. 5. Pages 454-460. May 1998.

Araki, H., Watanabe, H., Mishina, T. and Nakao, M. High-risk group for benign prostatic hypertrophy. The Prostate, Volume 4, Issue 3. Pages 253-264. 1983.

Beckett, J. L.; Oltjen, J. W. Estimation of the water requirement for beef production in the United States. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 17. Pages 818-826. 1993.

Burr, ML; Butland, BK. Heart disease in British vegetarians. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition. Vol. 48, No. 3. Pages 830-832. September 1988.

Ingram, D; Sanders, K; Kolybaba, M; & Lopez, D. Case-control study of phyto-oestrogens and breast cancer. Lance, Volume 350, Issue 9083. Pages 990-994. October 1997.

Johnson, KA; Johnson DE. Methane emissions from cattle. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 73, No. 8. Pages 2483-2492. August 1995.

Jenkins, David JA; Kendall, Cyril WC; Marchie, Augustine; Jenkins, Alexandra L; Augustin, Livia SA; Ludwig, David S; Barnard, Neal D; Anderson, James W. Type 2 diabetes and the vegetarian diet. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 78, No. 3, 610S-616S, September 2003.

Kjeldsen-Kragh, Jens. Rheumatoid arthritis treated with vegetarian diets. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, Vol. 70, No. 3, 594S-600S, September 1999

Leitzmann, Claus. Vegetarian Diets: What are the Advantages? Forum of Nutrition, Volume 57: Diet Diversification and Health Promotion. Pages 147-153. 2005.

Oliver, Rachel. All About: Food and fossil fuels. Retrieved from: edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/asiapcf/03/16/eco.food.miles/ on July 23, 2011. Published: March 17, 2008.

Segelken, Roger. U.S. could feed 800 million people with grain that livestock eat. Cornell University. Retrieved from news.cornell.edu/releases/Aug97/livestock.hrs.html on July 23, 2011. Published August 1997.

Willett, Walter C, M.D. MD; Stampfer, Meir J, M.D.; Colditz, Graham A, M.D.; Rosner, Bernard A, Ph.D.; Speizer, Frank E, M.D. Relation of Meat, Fat, and Fiber Intake to the Risk of Colon Cancer in a Prospective Study among Women. New England Journal of Medicine, Volume 323, No. 24. Pages 1664-1672. 1990.