These days, there are many diets making their way around crowds- keto, paleo, vegan, and so many more! Vegetarian diets are becoming more popularized with new foods such as the Impossible burger or seitan, tofu, and tempeh. But, is it worth the hype? According to Tuso et al. (2013), Plant based diets are shown to be more cost effective and can lower BMI, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels while also reducing heart disease rates. Tuso et al.’s (2013) study makes a strong claim that physicians should recommend vegetarian diets to patients who are at risk of diabetes, obesity, blood pressure, and cardiovascular disease.
A 63-year-old man was used as a case study in Tuso et al.’s (2013) review. He was a hypertension patient diagnosed with type 2 diabetes. He was noted to be on several medications with varying dosages and then was advised to go vegetarian. His diet consisted of non-starchy vegetables, less refined food, beans, nuts and seeds. After 16 weeks, significant improvement was noted. So much so, that the physician was able to wean the patient off medication he thrived on earlier, with the exception of diabetes medication.
According to Medawar et al. (2019), plant-based diets were also found to improve gut microbiome. The same study found that individuals following a vegetarian diet tended to have better bacteria floras due to protein fermentation processes. One main concern with plant-based diets is the lack of Vitamin B12. However, this vitamin can be found in milk, eggs, mushrooms, and certain fortified cereals. A vegan diet has higher concern for this lack of nutrients; however, the vegetarian diet is more well rounded.
So… Is it worth all the hype? You decide!
Medawar, E., Huhn, S., Villringer, A., & Veronica Witte, A. (2019). The effects of plant-based diets on the body and the brain: a systematic review. Translational Psychiatry, 9(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41398-019-0552-0
Tuso, P. (2013). Nutritional Update for Physicians: Plant-Based Diets. The Permanente Journal, 17(2), 61–66. https://doi.org/10.7812/tpp/12-085
Hi Sanjana. I enjoyed reading your post. There is a lot of evidence that shows the benefits of vegetarian diets. I liked that you mentioned foods to help avoid nutrient deficiencies. My first thought when reading your post was how many people can actually switch and stick to a vegetarian diet? Good habits can be hard to form. I ended up researching reasons why people might return to eating meat regardless of the health benefits.
ReplyDeleteA lot of people might return to eating meat or occasionally eating meat because of personal inconvenience, meat cravings, awkwardness in social settings, or health/nutrition concerns. I found one study in particular that found that those who adopted a vegetarian diet for reasons less centered in justice and those who felt socially unsupported were more likely to have lapses in their vegetarian diets and factors such as meat cravings or lifestyle changes played a much smaller role in lapses (Hodson et al., 2018).
Hodson, G., & Earle, M. (2018). Conservatism predicts lapses from vegetarian/vegan diets to meat consumption (through lower social justice concerns and social support). Appetite, 120, 75-81. doi:10.1016/j.appet.2017.08.027
Hi Megan! Yes, these days there are so many food creations to make up for meat cravings (i.e. tofu, impossible meat, tempeh, seitan, etc.) Regardless, it is still definitely hard to switch over and more importantly, to maintain. And for that article you found... That's so interesting! I guess it all depends on our mindset, like many other things in life! If you truly make an effort at it and believe in it, things tend to work better. This makes me wonder about placebos... Say you gave someone impossible meat the whole time while telling them it was real meat, would their health significantly change or not? Just something interesting to think about!
DeleteThis post caught my eye because I've adopted a vegetarian diet for a couple years now. I definitely noticed positive changes in my body, and my mood too!
ReplyDeleteGiven our focus on "Cura Personalis"in this program, this shed light of the importance of discussing diet when reviewing treatment with patients. It is incredible that eating a vegetarian diet for only 4 months reduced the patient's hypertension to the point where he was able to ween off of prescription medication. I wonder what other less explored morbidities could be 'treated' with a vegetarian diet.
The note on vegetarian's having a healthy gut microbiota led me to think about if fecal transplants from a vegetarian donor are more successful than from a donor with a more traditional diet.
Hi Vivi! That's so interesting. Personally, I stick to eating chicken and fish as my only meats, but have considered going vegetarian for a while now. I've heard about many others, like you, noticing many positive changes once they've switched their diet!
DeleteRegarding Cura Personalis... I absolutely agree. If we as future healthcare professionals are able to help the patient by being more open to holistic medicine routes as well, it could save the patient a lot of time and money regarding treatments.
You also brought up an interesting point about the microbiota... I did some research and turns out vegetarian and omnivore microbiota compositions are significantly different! This study found plant-based diets to be beneficial to our gut microbiome and promote a more diverse system, according to Tomova et al. (2019). Interesting read if you'd like, I've cited it below!
Tomova, A., Bukovsky, I., Rembert, E., Yonas, W., Alwarith, J., Barnard, N. D., & Kahleova, H. (2019). The Effects of Vegetarian and Vegan Diets on Gut Microbiota. Frontiers in nutrition, 6, 47. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnut.2019.00047
When I was younger, I always thought being a vegetarian was very difficult and that I would never be able to cut meat out of my diet. However, as I grew older and as time has passed, there are now so many alternatives for meat and like you mentioned, other nutrient sources. I find it difficult to make the switch, as I have been eating meat my entire life, but I wonder if starting to feed vegetarian meals at a younger age, like in school lunches, would help make eating that diet more normal. I think it could result in enormous health benefits for future generations.
ReplyDeleteI've also heard a lot about how other diets like paleo, keto, and vegan can be more harmful than good in some ways because you're losing necessary nutrients. I think more education on vegetarianism like the patient's you described could go a long way in not only promoting better health and diet but also getting rid of more harmful diets like paleo/keto/vegan.
Hi Amy! I myself had a chicken and fish (no red meat or pork) diet growing up and have been that way ever since. Personally, I don't have any blood pressure issues and neither do most of my relatives (who were also raised on a similar diet due to our culture/religion)... I do wonder how big of a role that plays in our health. But yes, I agree! Many other diets can tend to be more harmful or lack certain nutrients for an average individual. A vegetarian diet seems to be healthy, but still provides everything needed. It would be really cool to see schools incorporate vegetarian lunches and normalize it more. Reminds me of Cura Personalis, maybe this could benefit more people at a mass scale and at a younger age!
DeleteSanjana, your post was so intriguing and I could definitely relate to it! A few years ago, my mom was experiencing increased amounts of stress to the point where it was affecting her health. She has always been a healthy eater and when she went to see her primary care physician, she was diagnosed with hypertension and was put on a medication to lower her blood pressure. After a few months of taking the medication daily, my mom reported feeling continuously nauseous, light-headed, weak, and sometimes she would even pass out! She consulted her PCP and ultimately came to the decision that she wanted to discontinue her medication. Since then, my mom has implemented the vegetarian diet (although she will occasionally eat fish) and has seen life-changing results just like the patient you mentioned in your blog post! She no longer feels light-headed and hasn't fainted since taking the medication.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Pilis et al. (2014), a vegetarian diet increases intake of carbohydrates, which could be beneficial in maintaining lipid metabolism and ultimately lead to decreased blood pressure. If a vegetarian diet has proven to be beneficial to our health, why aren't more people trying to implement it into their lifestyle? I am curious to see what the future holds for medicine and how simple changes in diet could be used to treat different health conditions.
Pilis, W., Stec, K., Zych, M., & Pilis, A. (2014). Health benefits and risk associated with adopting a vegetarian diet. Roczniki Panstwowego Zakladu Higieny, 65(1), 9–14.
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ReplyDeleteHi Sanjana,
ReplyDeleteThis is such an interesting topic! When I was training and competing as a figure skater during undergrad, I focused on eating plant-based food because it was what made me feel best, gave me the most energy throughout the day, and I digested the plant-based foods much better than meats. I personally noticed a difference in my physical performance based on my diet. I felt as though my training was "easier" when I consumed more plant-based foods.
There is little research that gives concrete evidence whether eating a vegetarian/vegan diet versus an omnivorous diet improves physical performance in athletics. Based on the current research, there is not a significant difference in athletic performance for those eating vegetarian compared to those who are eating an omnivorous diet. Research demonstrates there are no disadvantages or advantages to eating a vegetarian diet in terms of athletic performance. However, eating a plant-based diet reduces the risk of developing chronic diseases (Lynch, Johnston, Wharton, 2018).
As I research this topic further, I have to wonder if my personal experience with consuming a plant-based diet actually provided me more energy, or if it was a bit of a placebo effect? As I take a step back from athletics, I realize now that many things I felt were necessary for my success in athletics were really things of routine and to build my mental toughness in performance.
As future healthcare professionals, I believe it is important to view topics of controversy or topics with new implications through biomedical ethics. It is our duty and responsibility as future healthcare providers to give every patient the best chance for health and wellness. To me, this means caring for the person as whole, cura personalis. To care for the whole person, we must provide care that isn't just prescribing a medication. In some circumstances, this is the only option to treat a person's medical conditions. In others, I believe it is important to provide multiple ways, not involving medications, to treat their medical conditions. As healthcare providers, we need to be innovative in our treatment instead of taking the standard route of just fixing the obvious problem at hand. For those with chronic disease, improving lifestyle choices is an excellent way to improve health and wellness. I believe that recommending patients adapt healthy lifestyle changes first, like consuming a plant-based diet, ensures that healthcare providers are improving the health and wellness of the person as a whole.
Lynch, Heidi, et al. “Plant-Based Diets: Considerations for Environmental Impact, Protein Quality, and Exercise Performance.” Nutrients, vol. 10, no. 12, 2018, p. 1841., doi:10.3390/nu10121841.
Sanjana,
ReplyDeleteThis is such relatable and interesting topic. I played baseball in college, and one of my teammates was a vegetarian. We had a resistance training program during the winter, and I remember I would always tell my teammate he wasn’t going to get as much strength gain as the other players because he was not eating meat and getting the protein from meat necessary to build muscle. I always just assumed this was the case, but I never really looked deeply into it until now, so I thank you for the inspiration.
I found this interesting study on PubMed that looked at the effects of an omnivorous diet vs. a vegetarian diet, coupled with resistance training, on body composition/skeletal muscle mass in older men. The researchers in this study controlled for diet where one group ate a controlled omnivorous diet (which included meat), and the other group ate a controlled vegetarian diet (which excluded meat). The diet was specific to each subject to meet the subject’s personal energy demand (bigger men needed to intake more calories, like we learned in physiology). The researchers found that the vegetarian group did not experience the same amount of increase in fat free mass (skeletal muscle mass) when compared to the omnivorous meat eating group after 12 weeks following the resistance-training program; however, interestingly enough, they also found that the strength gains were equal in both groups (Campbell, et al., 1999). They went on in their paper to explain how the role of muscle hypertrophy plays a small role in initial strength gains compared to the contribution of the nervous system and improved neuromuscular control due to resistance-training. Muscle hypertrophy would play a bigger role in long-term maintenance of the strength gain than the initial strength gain.
Although there are certainly great benefits to a vegetarian diet, there are also potential drawbacks. I would suggest to vegetarian resistance training athletes to be aware that they may not be getting all the nutrients they would get from meat and to search for alternatives to meat to ensure they are getting the most out of their training.
Campbell, W. W., Barton, M. L., Jr, Cyr-Campbell, D., Davey, S. L., Beard, J. L., Parise, G., & Evans, W. J. (1999). Effects of an omnivorous diet compared with a lactoovovegetarian diet on resistance-training-induced changes in body composition and skeletal muscle in older men. The American journal of clinical nutrition, 70(6), 1032–1039. https://doi.org/10.1093/ajcn/70.6.1032
A vegetarian diet has always interested me and I have committed to it for only weeks at a time previously. Understanding that livestock emissions account for over 23% of global greenhouse gases and lead to massive oceanic dead zones only amplifies my belief in a vegetarian diet (Reisinger et al. 2018). In combination with your findings, I believe a vegetarian diet is the future for human and ecological health. With the extinction of livestock production, slaughter, and distribution and the rise of plant based foods, we may stand a chance in combating the adverse effects of climate change via individual choice.
ReplyDeleteReferences
Reisinger, A., & Clark, H. (2018). How much do direct livestock emissions actually contribute to global warming? Global Change Biology, 24(4), 1749–1761. https://doi-org.dml.regis.edu/10.1111/gcb.13975
Hi Sanjana,
ReplyDeleteThis is a very interesting post! I have been a vegetarian for my entire life. Even though I'm not able to provide a comparison between being vegetarian and not being vegetarian, it has had a positive influence on me. It has shown to reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and other types of cancer. As well as, decreasing your chances of obesity and type-2 diabetes. The environmental implications of eating meat from the current ways of raising livestock have been increasing greenhouse gases. There is a large carbon footprint due to the current actions being taken place from an increase in methane into the atmosphere. More restaurants providing availability of vegan or vegetarian options has been useful and helpful. I feel like with the culture change, more people have started going towards plant-based diets rather than meat only. I still think that vegetarian options are still limited in many restaurants which causes people to switch back and forth between eating meat and a vegetarian dish.
Vegetarian diet: Benefits, risks, and tips. (n.d.). Retrieved October 05, 2020, from https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/8749