Pros and Cons of a Vegan Diet
I’ve tackled the subject of veganism in a number of social media posts and stories, and even in a video, but I thought it might be helpful to lay out my conclusions in an organized manner. “Plant-based diets” are veganism by any other name, and they have gained a ton of attention lately. I am professionally disappointed to see so many Registered Dietitians and even the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics give vegan diets the stamp of approval, despite the clear evidence that it is not an appropriate human nutrition pattern. It’s true that the standard American diet is broken and in need of major reform, and that veganism achieves that to some level, but as you’ll see below the handful of positives simply can’t outweigh the reasons why veganism is not the panacea we’re looking for.
Things I like about vegan diets:
Most people would benefit from more whole plant foods, especially with regards to microbiome health. Fiber is essentially food for the bacteria that live in our intestines. These bacteria play a critical role in our immune health, brain function, digestion and much more, so feeding them ample whole plants is a good plan.
Processed and restaurant foods are at the crux of the modern health disaster, and a vegan diet often (but not always) reduces this. The limited clinical research on vegan diets likely shows positive results because of a sudden halt in processed and restaurant food consumption. Of course, as vegan diets have become more trendy, manufacturers and restaurateurs are eagerly churning out vegan junk food. I suspect that a study performed on modern-day, real world vegans will not fare as well.
Modern conventional agriculture is a disgusting mess. I can understand why someone would want to distance themselves from the way most meat and dairy animals are currently raised. Modern agriculture has been shown to produce less nutrient-dense foods, and to take a major toll on the environment.
Ok, so on the surface maybe a vegan diet doesn’t sound so bad. Good for your gut, possibly less processed food, and a way to fight back against poor animal husbandry practices. But here’s the thing, there’s blatantly obvious counterpoints to each of those advantages, and it’s time we stop ignoring them.
Reasons I will never recommend a vegan diet:
We are omnivores for a biological reason. Yes, plants offer us fiber and a number of vitamins and minerals. But guess what, animal foods also contain vitamins and minerals, many of which you cannot get from plants in substantial, bioavailable quantities. Many proponents of a vegan diet will say straight off that you’ll need supplements to make the diet sustainable. In what world is the perfect diet literally impossible without man-made supplementation?
There is no long term data on the safety of prolonged veganism, especially among reproductive age women and their offspring. Frankly, there is very little data on veganism, period. I think people assume it has been studied extensively but that simply isn’t true. As I mentioned above, there are some studies that correlate vegan diets with better health outcomes. But correlation is not causation. Veganism has been a fringe diet for a long time, and historically those that adopted it typically practiced other healthy habits such as gardening, spending time outside, avoiding tobacco and/or alcohol, cooking at home, etc. Without a true clinical trial with a matched population where the only difference is the consumption of animal foods, it is impossible to say that avoiding animal foods is the superior choice. Since quality nutrition research like this is rare, another option is to look anthropologically to see if there is a society that has eaten this way for centuries. And in fact, there is not. A return to traditional human diets is a logical goal, and plain and simple, humans have traditionally eaten animal foods.
The solution to modern agriculture’s mess is not a sea of monoculture wheat, corn and soy. In fact, growing genetically modified wheat, corn and soy year after year is outright terrible for the planet. Instead, land must be rotated regularly to diversity and restore the soil. Ruminant animals such as the much maligned cow are a critical part of this rotational process. Registered Dietitian Diana Rodgers has tons of great information, including a book and documentary, on this concept.
For more information on vegan or plant based diet, check out my YouTube video on the topic.