Veganism: Is it a better option?

There are millions of vegans all over the world trying to persuade us to take up a vegan diet. What I want to know is; is veganism really better than any other diet? There are so many vegan celebrities such as Zac Efron, Jay-Z, Beyoncé, and Paul McCartney who believe that veganism is better for us and/or the planet. I have heard this several times, but I have never seen any actual evidence, so I decided to investigate it, to see if veganism really is better than a vegetarian or omnivorous diet.

Firstly, to decide what diet is the best choice, you need to understand the differences between different diets. A traditional omnivorous diet is what most people are exposed to from a young age. This is a diet that includes meat, dairy, eggs, and other animal products. The most common vegetarian does not eat meat or fish but can eat other animal products. There are 3 different types of vegetarians: lacto-ovo-vegetarians (who don’t eat meat, fish or shellfish but can eat eggs and dairy), lactovegetarians (who don’t eat meat, shellfish, fish or eggs but still consume dairy products), and ovovegetarians (who don’t eat meat, shellfish, fish or dairy but still eat eggs). People often get vegetarians confused with pescatarian, who can eat fish. Another common diet is flexitarianism, which is when a person is ‘semi-vegetarian’, and goes long periods of time without eating meat, but still eats it on some occasions. Lastly, veganism is when a person cannot eat meat, fish, dairy or any other animal products. This has been seen as extreme in the past but is a growing concept. Obviously, there is more than one factor to finding out how much better a vegan diet is than what we are used to. The factors I have researched are how veganism affects our physical health, the environment, and its natural resources.

A Harvard study has reached the conclusion that a healthy meal should consist of ¼ healthy protein-fish, poultry, beans or nuts-, ¼ whole grains- brown bread, brown rice, or whole grain pasta-, 1/3 pasta and 1/6 fruits. The article states clearly that potatoes are not counted as vegetables. Harvard recommends drinking water, tea, or coffee, with a limited amount of dairy.

Dr Ambika Satija led an investigation, published in 2017, in which she had followed the dietary data of more than 200,000 adults, of which 43,000 were male. Her team of researchers looked at the heart disease risk presented by 3 different categories of plant-based diets: A healthy plant based diet, consisting of almost 100% healthy plant foods such as grains, fruits, vegetables and nuts, reducing consumption of less healthy plant foods and animal products; an unhealthy plant based diet consisting of less-healthy plant based options such as fruit juices, refined grains, potatoes and sweetened drinks; an overall plant-based diet which ‘emphasized consumption of all healthy plant foods’ and avoided animal products. As expected, the people following the healthy plant based diet had the lowest risk of heart disease. They were also the fittest and most active group. However, those following an unhealthy plant-based diet may have actually had a higher risk of heart disease than the average meat eater.

Another study held in 2014 by the American Heart Association concluded that men ages 45-79 who ate more than 75g of processed red meat daily had a 28% higher risk of heart failure than men of the same age who consumed under 25g of red meat daily. In 2011, a different experiment was held in which 3 people from completely different backgrounds took on the challenge of going vegan for 6 weeks. These people included a college student whose parents had been cooking meat dishes for her whole life, a 27-year-old bachelor who thought vegans were ‘from outer space’, and a working single mother with two children. They had the same intentions; to lose weight, look good and feel healthy. However, none of them thought they would stay vegan after the 6 weeks. Within the first 2 weeks of the experiment, they reported feeling ‘lighter’ and getting stronger physically. Veganism has been demonstrated to do this in several cases; even I experienced it personally after going vegetarian. Veganism has been proven to benefit our health in other areas as well. It lowers the risk of several diseases such as colon cancer, with a strong link to red meat. A vegan diet also reduces the risk of prostate cancer, which is linked to dairy. A vegan diet can almost prevent diabetes and treat it better than the American Dietetic Association diet can.

Veganism can often make people look better as well. By this, I mean it helps people to lose weight. This also boosts people’s mental health when they feel confident in how they look. During the previously mentioned experiment, all 3 subjects lost weight. The bad cholesterol levels in the subjects dropped by 18-26 points in all subjects. There was also a significant drop in blood pressure in 2 of the subjects. A relatively low blood pressure indicates a healthy lifestyle, but if it gets below 90/60mmHg it could mean your heart is failing or you are suffering from liver disease.

There are 2 types of ‘fake meat’- cell based protein and plant-based protein. Plant based protein-e.g., the Impossible Burger, the Beyond Burger- is where the protein is extracted from a plant and combined with other plant-based ingredients. Cell based protein, however, is when a cell is extracted from an animal, then lab-grown to create meat. This is technically real animal meat, but because it does not involve animal slaughter, it is considered a loophole by some people. Examples of this include JUST Meat and Memphis Meats. Lab meat/cell-based protein has not been developed enough for it to be put in supermarkets just yet, but some say they could be accessible as soon as 2021. Plant based proteins are much lower in calories compared to animal meat. The Impossible Whopper from Burger King is lower in calories, fat, and cholesterol than the regular Whopper burger. However, it contains much more sodium and processed ingredients (such as soy protein isolate and modified food starch) than the original Whopper. Obviously, plant-based proteins are manufactured products, so every product uses different ingredients. This makes it a lot harder to figure out if they are better for you than real meat.

The biggest health issue that comes with a vegan or vegetarian diet is a lack of certain vitamins. Vitamin B12 is an essential vitamin found in fish, meat, dairy products, and eggs, so many vegetarians suffer from a B12 deficiency. A B12 deficiency can get as bad as causing neurological and psychological disorders, megaloblastic anaemia and possibly Alzheimer’s disease. There are few vegan foods that provide B12. These include marmite, fortified cereals, nori seaweed and tempeh (a fermented soy product). Vegetarians can also be deficient in creatine, which is not essential to a diet, but is an easy-toaccess energy store for muscle cells. Carnosine is an antioxidant found in meat, poultry, and fish. It is concentrated in our muscles and brains. Vitamin D3 is an essential nutrient mainly found in animalbased foods, and lack of it can cause illnesses such as osteoporosis, cancer, heart disease and depression. Heme iron can only be found in red meat, and it is a lot easier to absorb than non-heme iron, which can be found in plant foods, as it is not affected by antinutrients. However, if a vegan diet includes plenty of non-heme iron, anaemia is easy to prevent. Docosahexaenoic acid is an essential fatty acid crucial to helping brain development and function. If a pregnant woman is deprived of this, her baby could end up with an underdeveloped brain. Lastly, taurine, which appears to help with muscle function, bile salt formation and antioxidant defences, is proven to be much less present in vegans compared to meat eaters.

Many people go vegan purely because they do not agree with the concept of eating animals. Paul and Linda McCartney, who are both devout vegans, said that “If slaughterhouses had glass walls, everyone would be a vegetarian”. Oftentimes, people have seen footage of these slaughterhouses and they can never look at meat the same way. However, I am very squeamish, so I did not watch any actual videos of farms. Instead, I listened to and read about the processes, and I was shocked by the cruelty going on behind closed doors. Animals in farms are treated like machines, trapped in tight spaces on top of each other. People have been led to believe that free-range farms let their animals roam freely, but in reality, that could not be further from the truth. The only real difference between factory farms and cage-free farms is the fact that the hens are not in cages. Even in free range farms, chickens are only provided with 3 square feet of floor area. The hens still suffer from conditions that caged hens suffer from, like lung lesions and ammonia burns. Male chicks are often ground up or suffocated because they do not produce eggs and any meat they produce isn’t profitable. These chicks will have never seen their own mother. According to the U.S. department of agriculture, animals in cage-free/ free-range farms are allowed to be “temporarily confined for reasons of health, safety, the animal’s stage of production or to protect soil or water quality”. Farmers will often take advantage of this loophole and use it as an excuse to barely let their animals outside I have focused mainly on chickens for this. This is because birds make up for 9 of the 10 billion animals slaughtered worldwide for food every year. Another one of the most common animals farmed for food is cows. Even a vegetarian who doesn’t eat meat still has an effect on cows. Baby cows are taken from their mothers within 48 hours of birth, so that the mother’s milk can be taken and used for our own benefits. Male cows are either killed within several days of birth or grown until a certain age where they can be killed for meat. Female cows are forced to have babies so that humans can take their milk. If a cow suffers from a mental condition, it will oftentimes be shot in the head with a bolt gun. This drives a steel bolt into the cow’s head, forcing a slow, painful death. However, if there wasn’t such a high demand for meat, would farms still have to use such harsh processes? Probably not.

So, a vegan diet would mean you don’t contribute to the slaughter of animals, but is it better for the environment itself? Well, as far as I’m aware it is. The UN declared this year that meat and dairy account for 14.5% of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions. According to a 2016 report, the world’s food-related carbon emissions could drop by 70% by 2050! Dairy milk produces more carbon emissions, uses more water and uses more than rice, soy oat and almond milk. To produce dairy milk, you need more than 3x the amount of land needed for any other milk. On top of this, cows produce methane when they fart, burp and breathe. Methane is one of the biggest contributors to climate change, even above carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas. However, there are essential plants in a vegan diet that aren’t so environmentally friendly. We need more than 2,000 litres of water just to grow 1kg of avocados. Due to the sudden rise in demand for avocados, farmers have been forced to illegally cut down forests to grow the profitable crops. In Kenya, previously the 6 th largest exporter of avocados, they have recently banned avocado trade due to the lack of supply in their own country. Australia has also reported a shortage of avocados, causing rationing. Soybeans are another essential protein provider for vegans, as they’re versatile and you can find them almost anywhere. Despite its ideal properties for us, WWF has named soy the “second-largest agricultural driver, after beef”, but only 6% is consumed directly by humans. Most of the world’s soy produced goes towards feeding the meat and dairy industries.

Vegan diets almost always have a lower carbon, water and ecological footprint than a regular meat or fish eater, but if all your food is imported then you may even have a higher environmental footprint than that of a meat eater. In a 2017 study of more than 200,000 people, 2 of them were vegans who only ate fruit. Importing all of these foreign fruits has its impact on the environment, which might even be worse than the environmental impact of a meat eater. However, newly introduced meat alternatives such as jackfruit haven’t been researched enough at the moment to know their true ecological footprint, though, so we can’t be sure.

In conclusion, a vegan diet is ideal for anyone who wants to lose weight, feel healthier or be kinder to the planet, but it all depends on what you eat. If you locally source, or even home grow your foods, you are reducing your carbon consumption by a huge amount. To stay healthy, all you have to do is make sure you get enough vitamins, either by taking supplements or eating nutrient-rich foods. If you’re considering going vegan, why not give it a try now?