Which diet is the healthiest: omnivorous, vegetarian, vegan?

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What is the healthiest diet in 2022: omnivorous, vegetarian, vegan
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Scientific research shows that our diet has a significant impact on our health and may increase or decrease the risk of some of the most popular diseases such as cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes, etc.

Also, a healthy and balanced diet has a significant impact on weight loss and muscle building.

The question is how to eat healthy so that we could lose weight, build muscle, improve our health and live longer?

Many experts’ and doctors’ opinions may contradict with each other. Some say that an omnivorous diet is the healthiest diet for us and others say that a vegan diet is the healthiest.

So, in this post we’ll see what is the healthiest diet according to scientific research and are most of people right.

What is an omnivorous, vegetarian, vegan diet?

Let’s start by defining what products we can eat on an omnivorous, vegetarian and vegan diets.

An omnivorous diet allows us to eat any foods, including meat and dairy products.

A vegetarian diet eliminates meat, fish, and poultry but allows eggs and dairy products. There are different types of vegetarian diets such as lacto-vegetarian, ovo-vegetarian, pescatarian diets.

A vegan diet eliminates all products of animal origin such as meat, fish, poultry, dairy products, honey.

Omnivorous diet vs vegan diet

Each diet has its advantages and disadvantages. Any diet should be a well-balanced one to get the most benefits out of it.

So, let’s start with the advantages of an omnivorous diet:

  1. It’s easier to get some essential vitamins and minerals such as vitamin B12, zinc, iodine on an omnivorous diet [1]

Now, let’s see the disadvantages of an omnivorous diet:

  1. There are some nutrients at risk of inadequacy such as fiber, PUFA, vitamin D, E, folate and others.
  2. With all the good nutrients you also get some bad nutrients such as saturated fat, cholesterol that can increase the risk of some diseases.
  3. Consuming meat products negatively impacts our environment and also animals that are abused in different ways that some of us can’t even imagine.

Here are the advantages of a vegan diet:

  1. Scientific research shows that vegan diets are healthier for us than omnivorous diets [1, 2, 3]
  2. Vegan diets are also better for our environment and animals.
  3. It’s easier to get some important nutrients that we lack on an omnivorous diet such as fiber, folate, PUFA, vitamins B1, B6, C, E and others. [1]

Now, let’s see the disadvantages of a vegan diet:

  1. There are some nutrients at risk of inadequacy such as vitamin B12, iodine, calcium. [1] However, this can be easily fixed by using the appropriate supplements.

What is the healthiest diet according to scientific research?

So, what about the science? What is the healthiest diet according to the science?
Scientific research shows that a plant-based diet such as a vegan diet is really the healthiest diet. [2]

Meta-analysis of 108 studies shows that significant results in terms of reduction for risk of incidence of ischemic heart disease (-25%) and incidence of total cancer (-8%) were observed for vegetarians. Vegan diet showed a significant association with a reduced risk of total cancer incidence (-15%). [3]

Another meta-analysis of 13 cohort studies including 844175 participants showed a 15% and a 21% reduction in the relative risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and ischemic heart disease (IHD), respectively, for vegetarians compared to nonvegetarians. [4]

In addition, an 18% reduction in the relative risk of IHD was observed among vegans when compared to nonvegetarians, although this association was imprecise. No clear association was observed between vegan diets and CVD or stroke because of the limited number of studies. [4]

However, some studies included in the meta-analyses have some limitations that could significantly impact the results so all conclusions should be interpreted with caution.

Summary

So, what is the healthiest diet according to scientific research? Well, studies show that a plant-based diet such as a vegan diet is the healthiest diet at the moment.

In other words, scientific research shows that we should eat less products of animal origin such as meat, fish, eggs, etc. and eat more plant-based products such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, nuts, etc.

Your diet should be a well-balanced one no matter if it’s an omnivorous one or a vegan one.

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