The Vegan Option: A Healthier Choice for Individuals and the Planet

The following is adapted from Oversaturated by Evan Allen.

When we’re speaking to patients about a better diet to reduce the symptoms and risk of cardiovascular and metabolic disease, it’s essential to stress a significant decrease in saturated fat. The easiest way to do this is to eliminate animal products from their diet, such as meat, poultry, pork, dairy, and eggs, which amounts to eating a vegan diet.

Making this kind of sweeping change isn’t without challenges, however. Many people don’t know the first thing about a vegan diet or what it entails. Here are the answers to some common questions about veganism.

How is veganism different from a vegetarian diet?

Veganism is similar to vegetarianism, but many vegetarians still eat eggs and dairy products. Veganism is a plant-based diet that includes no animal products of any kind, especially meat, poultry, pork, fish, game, cheese, milk, milk products, and eggs.

For many vegans, honey is also not allowed, as it disturbs the bees’ habitat and takes away their food source. Some vegans eschew animal products in all areas of their lives, including clothing and cosmetics or personal care items containing animal products or tested on animals.

What are some reasons people become vegans?

There are many compelling reasons to embrace a vegan lifestyle. To start with, it is a simple way to greatly reduce saturated fat in the diet because most plant-based foods are low in saturated fat.

Contrary to what people believe about the Paleo diet, which is the opposite of a vegan diet, most humans ate a fairly vegan diet for millennia. Only the wealthy could afford fat-rich animal foods, and they were they only people who had vascular disease. Until the Industrial Revolution changed diets in the West, people ate a diet high in carbohydrates and low in fats and had no atherosclerosis.

Veganism is consistent with the belief that we should do no harm to animals. Also, the meat and dairy industries have become highly commercial and have recently seen a reversal in regulation, making these food products potentially less safe.

A vegan food regimen is clear cut for dieters — no measuring or weighing of fats, like butter or cheese, involved. And as a bonus it’s less expensive for most people too and more environmentally friendly than a diet based on animal products.

Why is veganism better for the planet?

A great deal of the planet is being harmed or destroyed to satisfy man’s need for animal-based foods. A quarter of the world’s land is occupied by over a billion cattle. Vast amounts of tropical forest are still being cleared to accommodate cow pastures, even though we now know this practice is harmful to the earth.

At least 70 percent of the grain produced in the United States is actually for livestock — grain that drains water resources and often uses pesticides in its cultivation. Our oceans are being depleted of fish faster than these animals can reproduce.

Are vegan diets always lower in saturated fat?

While a vegan diet is usually healthier, it’s possible to be a vegan and eat too much saturated fat. Tropical oils, such as palm oil, palm kernel oil, and coconut oil — a mainstay of many popular eating programs — are very high in saturated fat.

Even olive oil, which is low in saturated fat, can be harmful if it is ladled indiscriminately onto food. To follow a vegan diet that is the lowest in saturated fat, remove all added oils. Some levels of saturated fat will remain, such as the oil naturally found in oatmeal, but it will be at a level that the body can metabolize.

Do vegan diets lack any key nutrients?

As mentioned above, it is possible to construct an unhealthy vegan diet. One could eat sugary vegan donuts all day and while technically being a vegan, not be healthy.

So, it is important to eat as many unrefined, unprocessed fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans as possible. Patients who worry they are lacking in important nutrients can get their levels tested, such as with vitamin D. A B12 supplement is advised for anyone following a vegan diet.

What about protein deficiency?

The need for huge levels of protein is overblown in the media and in pop fake science. How do we know this? People are never hospitalized for protein deficiency. Plant proteins contain all the amino acids necessary for healthy human living. For people who absolutely feel they need an animal protein source, there is an option that is ecologically sensitive, high in protein, and extremely low in saturated fat: pulverized insects, like cricket flour.

If this sounds surprising, remember that throughout most of our evolution, primates were herbivores and insectivores. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, a quarter of the world’s population eats bugs regularly. And guess what — the USDA says Americans inadvertently eat anywhere from one to two pounds of pulverized insects annually.

What are some tips for people considering the vegan option?

Vegans typically eat a higher percentage of fresh and unprocessed foods. But if they shop in the middle of the grocery store, where the canned and packaged goods are, they still need to read labels. Watch out for saturated fat from animal or tropical oil sources, as well as trans fat (artificial fat) in items like baked goods. The fewer processed foods eaten, the better.

For many people, easing into veganism helps. Start by eating vegan meals a couple of days per week, and add more days over the next few months. Or, begin by eating a vegetarian (eggs and dairy allowed) or pescatarian (fish allowed but no meat) diet, and transition to veganism by phasing out the animal products over a month or two.

Making sweeping change is rarely easy, especially for patients who have the worst eating habits. Use the talking points above, along with what we know about the dangers of dietary fat, to help them transition to a healthier diet. Many patients begin to feel better in a matter of just a few weeks, making the challenge well worth it.

For more advice on significantly reducing dietary fat by adopting a vegan diet, you can find Oversaturated on Amazon.

Dr. Evan Allen has been practicing medicine for a quarter century, and in that time, he’s opened two practices in Henderson, Nevada, and received board-certification from the American Board of Obesity Medicine. When Dr. Allen began to pay more attention to nutrition, the health of his patients improved. This discovery sent him on a search for a book like this one — a search that came up empty. With this book, Dr. Allen wants to give healthcare providers what he never had: a guide for talking to their patients about a healthy diet that’s low in saturated fat. Dr. Allen lives in Henderson with his son.