One Identical Twin Goes Vegan, One Sticks to Meat in New Scientific Study. Here’s How it Affected Their Health

EAT

Nov 29

Over twenty pairs of identical twins took part in the study about the potential health benefits of a plant-based diet.

A vegan diet can improve cardiovascular health according to a new study that compared the diets of identical twins.

Researchers from Stanford Medicine led the study with 22 pairs of identical twins, a design choice that helps eliminate outside factors such as genetic differences, upbringing, and lifestyle choices.

For each pair of twins, one adopted a healthy vegan diet with vegetables, legumes, fruits, and whole grains, while the other followed a healthy and balanced omnivore diet that included chicken, fish, eggs, cheese, dairy, and other animal-sourced foods.

Over eight weeks, the study used a meal service to prepare and deliver all meals for the first four weeks, and then asked participants to prepare their own meals for the second four weeks.

With health evaluations throughout the process, the researchers found various health improvements for those on the vegan diet.

These included a significantly lower LDL cholesterol than those eating the meat diet. The average baseline for the vegan participants at the start of the study was 110.7 mg/dL for LDL cholesterol, which dropped to 95.5 by the end of the study. The optimal level for health is less than 100. In comparison, the meat diet participants started at 118.5 mg/dL, and dropped to 116.1 at the end.

Vegan participants also showed a 20 percent drop in insulin, with higher insulin levels a known risk factor for developing diabetes. They also showed a greater weight loss, with the vegans on average losing 4.2 pounds more than the omnivores.

Other additional benefits of a vegan diet can also include increased gut bacteria and the reduction of telomere loss, which slows aging in the body.

“Based on these results and thinking about longevity, most of us would benefit from going to a more plant-based diet,” said Christopher Gardner, a professor in the Stanford Prevention Research Center who led the study, which was published this month in the journal JAMA Network Open.

Only one person dropped out of the study during the eight week process. The researchers say this success rate shows that those who followed the vegan diet were able to successfully plan and incorporate a healthy, fully-vegan diet within a short time.

“This suggests that anyone who chooses a vegan diet can improve their long-term health in two months, with the most change seen in the first month," Gardner explained.

Based on the evidence, Gardner encourages people to incorporate more plant-based foods into their diet, and offers the advice that a great first step can be experimenting with vegan multicultural foods like Indian masala, Asian stir-fry, and African lentil-based dishes.

Scientific Studies on Vegan Diets

The popularity of vegan foods has accelerated in the last decade amid growing concerns about animal products and their negative effects on the climate, personal health, and animal welfare.

That in turn has led to increased scientific interest that looks into plant-based foods and their potential benefits.

Establishing the environmental footprint of plant-based diets has been a particular focus for many studies, including recent work by scientists at the University of Oxford who analyzed the environmental impact of over 55,000 people’s individual diets in the most comprehensive research of its kind.

According to their findings, vegan diets were found to cause 75 percent fewer emissions when compared to diets where more than 100g of meat was consumed daily. In the same comparison, vegan diets also required 75 percent less land use, as well as resulted in a 66 percent decrease in wildlife destruction, and a 54 percent reduction in water consumption.

Feeling inspired to add more plant-based foods into your diet? Check out Species Unite’s 7-Day Vegan Challenge that’s full of tips and recipes to get you started on your plant-based journey. Find out more here.

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