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Is a vegan diet healthier than eating meat and dairy? - BBC REEL


dinneR

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Identical twins Hugo and Ross Turner are adventure athletes that are always trying to find ways to improve their performance. With the help of scientists at King's College London, they went on a 12-week fitness program with a twist: Hugo turned vegan, and Ross continued to eat meat. Which diet is the best?

 

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15 hours ago, denniS said:

Which diet is the best?

The TL;DW version is "who knows?", but the nice thing is that vegan and vegetarian diets continue to be shown to be good alternatives.  At the VERY least, folks should be massively increasing their fruits and veggies.  Eat the rainbow, especially from the veggie world.  Hard to go wrong eating vegetarian most of the time.

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52 minutes ago, Razors Edge said:

The TL;DW version is "who knows?", but the nice thing is that vegan and vegetarian diets continue to be shown to be good alternatives.  At the VERY least, folks should be massively increasing their fruits and veggies.  Eat the rainbow, especially from the veggie world.  Hard to go wrong eating vegetarian most of the time.

This is so fact right here. 

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3 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

The TL;DW version is "who knows?", but the nice thing is that vegan and vegetarian diets continue to be shown to be good alternatives.  At the VERY least, folks should be massively increasing their fruits and veggies.  Eat the rainbow, especially from the veggie world.  Hard to go wrong eating vegetarian most of the time.

Turkey burgers are vegan right? 😂

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3 hours ago, Razors Edge said:

The TL;DW version is "who knows?", but the nice thing is that vegan and vegetarian diets continue to be shown to be good alternatives.  At the VERY least, folks should be massively increasing their fruits and veggies.  Eat the rainbow, especially from the veggie world.  Hard to go wrong eating vegetarian most of the time.

There's no question that the avg. person eats far too few fruits and veggies.

I like the philosophy of The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (c.2017) that takes a "wait and see" attitude toward breaking research that the media drools over but the scientists say is not confirmed and it relies more on moderation.  It stresses diets proven by decades of time and serious, unbiased research by organizations like the National Institutes of Health.  It does NOT favor any one diet. Excerpts:

Over the past thirty-five years, my colleagues and I have been continually surprised by the impact of diet on the risks of a host of chronic diseases. That dietary decisions could significantly affect the chances of contracting heart disease, various cancers, cataracts, and even serious birth defects was not appreciated by the nutrition community until relatively recently. And many aspects of diet that were off the nutrition science radar screen, such as trans fat intake, glycemic load, and low intakes of folic acid and vitamin D, have emerged as important factors in long-term health. This book will guide you to make better dietary decisions for yourself and your family.

Although our large prospective studies have provided a unique and powerful flow of information about diet and health, the best understanding of a topic this complex should incorporate evidence from all available sources. This book attempts to do this, giving special weight to studies of actual disease risk in humans.

Perhaps one of the most important conclusions of our work is that healthy diets—and there is no single healthy diet—do not mean deprivation or monotony. In fact, the opposite is true. The classic Midwestern American diet centered on mashed potatoes, roast beef, and gravy—besides being among the world’s unhealthiest fares—was terribly dull compared to what I describe in this book. And the recipes included here represent just a sampling of the tremendously varied possibilities for healthy and exciting eating.

Here is the outline of my simple, actionable advice for healthy eating, which I describe in detail later in the book:

  • Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, but limit fruit juices and corn, and hold the potatoes.

  • Eat more good fats (these mostly come from plants) and fewer bad fats (these mostly come from meat and dairy foods).

  • Eat more whole-grain carbohydrates and fewer refined-grain carbohydrates.

  • Choose healthy sources of protein, limit your consumption of red meat, and don’t eat processed meat.

  • Drink more water. Coffee and tea are okay; sugar-sweetened soda and other beverages aren’t.

  • Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.

  • Take a multivitamin for insurance, just in case you aren’t getting the vitamins and minerals you need from the foods you eat. Make sure it delivers at least 1,000 international units of vitamin D.

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14 minutes ago, Square Wheels said:

12 weeks is not enough time to determine long term performance.

Great point.  Additionally, the fact their bodies weren't pre-conditioned to the diets means the outcomes aren't clear: did the adjustment of their intestinal bacteria, etc. have an effect?  Did the change in diet result in water-weight loss or gain?  It's like measuring how long it takes someone to cycle for 100 yards without knowing if they got a running start or not.

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One thing for certain I haven't upped my bean intake much at all. My system and much bean, don't respond well and I feel like a sludge.

As mentioned before here, I eat meat 2-4 times /month. Each time, only 1 fistful of lean meat. I really dislike it when chefs on tv  rhapsodize over meat fat marbling, etc. It's a real  trend in the past decade and not good for  younger generations. I never saw meat fat marbling good at all. I was taught since teenagehood, to cut it off/scrape it off when slicing meat. So the concept for me, a slab of steak is abit foreign.  A slab of chicken or turkey breast, fish fillet, yes.

 

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28 minutes ago, MickinMD said:

Here is the outline of my simple, actionable advice for healthy eating, which I describe in detail later in the book:

  • Eat plenty of vegetables and fruits, but limit fruit juices and corn, and hold the potatoes.

  • Eat more good fats (these mostly come from plants) and fewer bad fats (these mostly come from meat and dairy foods).

  • Eat more whole-grain carbohydrates and fewer refined-grain carbohydrates.

  • Choose healthy sources of protein, limit your consumption of red meat, and don’t eat processed meat.

  • Drink more water. Coffee and tea are okay; sugar-sweetened soda and other beverages aren’t.

  • Drink alcohol in moderation, if at all.

  • Take a multivitamin for insurance, just in case you aren’t getting the vitamins and minerals you need from the foods you eat. Make sure it delivers at least 1,000 international units of vitamin D.

Me in a nutshell. I don't take a multivitamin and I do eat chocolate and desserts, but I find the advice above pays dividends (for me) and is relatively easy.  Being a vegan or vegetarian (like Square or the one person in the vid) obviously would add some extra effort, but not a whole lot. I personally would miss eggs and dairy a LOT.

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