The Remarkable Benefits of Vegan Diets for Aging Well
The vegan diet has soared over the last decade, and January is the month that many people decide to try it out themselves. A UK non-profit, Veganuary, encourages people to take up vegan diets for the 31 days of January (and potentially beyond!), and over half a million people participated last year!
There are a lot of reasons why people choose to follow a vegan diet, and a major one is the incredible health benefits. Research shows that plant-based eaters get a more diverse range of nutrients, vitamins, and minerals through their diet than their meat-eater friends. And that’s not all, vegan diets pack in powerful hormone-balancing benefits alongside a ton of gut-regulating fiber to help keep you feeling like your best self.
So whether you’ve been participating in ‘Veganuary’ or you’re thinking about going vegan, let’s talk about how eating more plant-based foods can help boost overall health and wellness!
What is a vegan diet?
Vegan friendly-foods are plant-based foods such as fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, tofu, tempeh, and other plant-based alternatives. There are certain nutrients that can be harder to get in vegan diets as they’re primarily found in foods like dairy, meat, and fish.
You may already take a supplement regularly and if you follow a vegan diet, it can be helpful to supplement for those harder-to-get nutrients such as iron, iodine, vitamin B12, calcium, zinc, vitamin D, and omega-3 fatty acids.
Proper meal planning and supplementation can help ensure you’re getting all the essential nutrients you need on a vegan diet. For more guidance, your healthcare provider can help recommend supplements based on your personal needs.
How eating vegan can support your health and wellness as you age
Packing in all those fresh foods every day adds up to a lot of high-quality benefits. Check out the incredible ways that consuming a plant-based vegan diet can enhance your life in more ways than one!
Vegan diets may help reduce hot flashes
A new research study called the Women’s Study for the Alleviation of Vasomotor Symptoms (WAVS), found that a low-fat vegan diet rich in soy can help reduce hot flashes just as effectively as hormone replacement therapy (HRT)! This 12-week trial of a vegan diet focused on 3 key eating factors: limiting fat, adding soybeans, and avoiding animal products. Researchers found that women following a vegan diet with these guidelines had their moderate-to-severe hot flashes reduced by over 80%.
One contributing factor here is likely the high content of phytoestrogens consumed, which are specialized plant compounds that have similar properties to estrogen and may help with declining estrogen symptoms. Women in Asia consume a significant amount of isoflavones from their soy-rich diets and research finds they report fewer symptoms associated with perimenopause than women who consume Westernized diets.
Vegan diets can help support a healthy weight
The additional gut-friendly fiber in a vegan diet can help increase feelings of being full, keep snacking cravings at bay, and regulate your metabolism. Plus, several randomized studies have controlled for outside healthy lifestyle factors like increased physical activity, and have found the vegan diet to be the most effective at aiding in weight loss as compared to other diets, including calorie-restricted diets.
Vegan diets can help balance out moods (and hormones!)
Eating a healthy diet that promotes good gut health has been shown to not only help stabilize our moods and balance hormones, but also reduce inflammation, which can contribute to other symptoms like joint pain, digestion disturbances, and more.
One interesting study found that following a vegan plant-based diet for 16 weeks enhanced the gut microbiome! Researchers conducted the 16-week study by splitting 147 people into 2 groups, with only one group making changes to follow a low-fat vegan diet. Researchers found that following a low-fat vegan diet helped reduce people’s weight and visceral fat levels — so quickly and profoundly that it actually shocked the researchers!
When asked what the biggest takeaway of the study was, the lead researcher Dr. Hana Kahleova said, “Eat more plants. They contain fiber that boosts the gut microbiome and metabolic health.”, — a good reminder for 2023!
Vegan diets can help support blood sugar levels
All that fiber from fruits and veggies has a ton of blood sugar-balancing powers! Consuming a variety of fiber-rich veggies on a daily basis can help regulate your body’s blood sugar response and help you avoid sugar crashes.
Plus, the benefits may be even greater for people with a blood sugar condition like diabetes. One study found that vegan diets reduce blood sugar levels in people more than 2x the amount as other diets. And even more, research shows that people who eat plant-based diets are 75% less likely of developing type 2 diabetes than their non-vegan counterparts!
Vegan diets support your heart health
Research shows these plant-based diets do have the most fiber and vitamin K, while also sporting the lowest levels of unhealthy saturated fats and cholesterol when compared to vegetarian and omnivore diets.
Several studies show that vegan diets are much more effective at reducing cholesterol, both total cholesterol and LDL (bad), than other diets — which all help reduce the risk of heart disease and stroke. It’s incredible what healthy food can do for our bodies!
What type of diet or style of eating do you have questions about? Let us know in the comments which one we should look at next, and don’t forget to follow us on Instagram @mbody.official.
