Veganism is an eating habit that arouses the curiosity of many people. Basically, it involves excluding the consumption of foods of animal origin and brings numerous health benefits. In this sense, the study published by the Journal of the American Medical Association says that the vegan diet improves cardiovascular health.
Vegan diet improves cardiovascular health
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Find out how a vegan diet improves cardiovascular health
This research selected 22 pairs of identical twins. Which totaled 44 healthy participants, without cardiovascular diseases. Furthermore, each pair of twins was divided into two groups: one that had to comply with the vegan diet and the other assigned to the omnivorous diet.
The omnivorous diet consists of chicken, fish, eggs, cheese and other dairy products. While the vegan diet was completely based on plants and other products of animal origin.
In the first four weeks of this experiment, participants received meals at home and in the following four weeks they prepared their own food with the support of a nutritionist.
Thus, during this time the twins were interviewed about their diet, underwent blood tests and checked their weight at the beginning, middle and end of the study.
The researchers then observed a reduction in average levels of LDL cholesterol (Low Density Lipoprotein) in the vegan group. Which was 110.7 mg/dL for 95.5 versus 118.5 mg/dL for 116.1 among omnivores.
The study also cited that it is feasible to prepare and consume healthy plant-based food to improve health in a short period of time. Considering that 21 of the 22 participants on the vegan diet completed the study and the sudden changes were felt in the first four weeks.
The expert’s word
“Several studies have already demonstrated that reducing meat consumption can help reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease, as it tends to contribute to the improvement of a series of markers associated with poor cardiovascular health, such as high LDL levels, insulin resistance and obesity”, concluded Dr. Marcella Garcez.
