Vegan Diet Brings Slew of Benefits
Two truisms about aging, first the more elderly the individual is the more chances of getting disabled in one way or another, the second is the more elderly one is there is a greater chance of dying which increases with age. The sad truth is eventually all of us would get old and die but as my lovely wife reminded me, that may be true but let us not be in a hurry to get there.
I was with Edith my wife who was driving us to the Asian market and I brought up the subject about vegan animals have longer life span. So we ask apple “Siri” the average life span of carnivorous animals; lions 10-14 years and tigers 10-15 years and herbivorous (vegans); elephants 60-70 years and Hippopotamus 40-50 years. There may be some exceptions but this is generally true among animals.
Approximately 8 million adults in the U.S. do not eat meat, poultry or fish, according to the 2016 National Harris Poll published by the Vegetarian Resource Group. About one-half of vegetarians are also vegans — approximately 3.7 million U.S. adults.
The Vegan Animal Digestive System
Is there a difference in the digestive system of herbivores (plant eating) and carnivores (meat eating) animals?
Herbivores eat plants, and their digestive system has adapted to absorb nutrients from plant material. (eg. rabbits, cows and sheep)
- Grinding Teeth; Herbivores have square, flat molars designed to crush and grind plant material with a sideways motion
- Long Digestive Tracts; Plant material is difficult to digest, particularly plant cellulose. The herbivores intestines are up to 10-12 times longer than their body length, giving the digestive system time to breakdown and absorb correctly.
- Digestive Enzymes; Amylase is contained within the saliva of the herbivore combined with the chewing action help to break down the coarse fibre and carbohydrates that makes up plant material.
Carnivore in Latin means “Meat eater” and the classification refers to diets that consist of mainly meat. (eg. cats, lions, dogs and wolves)
- Sharp Tearing Teeth; A carnivores teeth are designed for tearing and slicing (not grinding). Carnivores have elongated front teeth which are used to kill prey and triangular shaped molars which act like a serrated blade and operate in a vertical scissor action to give a cutting action.
- Short Digestive Tract; intestinal tract 3-6 times their body length. High hydrochloric stomach acid (pH 1-2 compared to humans at a pH of 4-5) quickly digests meat based protein and fat.
- Digestive Enzymes; Amylase is not present within the saliva of carnivores hence the burden of digesting carbohydrates is taken by the pancreas. The saliva of carnivores is acidic while the saliva of herbivores is alkaline. Long term over loading of the pancreas is associated with insulin resistance and ultimately the failure of the pancreas to produce of insulin as found in type II diabetes.
The digestive system of humans is more like that of herbivores animals. You can eat meat if you want to but the truth is the way human digestive system is it is not the best food for you. Therefore, you don’t need to fool yourself and others saying that we are program to eat meat because that is not true.
A Plant-based Diet Benefits
A plant-based diet low in fat yielded several metabolic benefits, according to a new trial.
Over a 16-week period, adults with overweight or obesity who were randomized to a low-fat vegan diet lost an average 13 pounds , reported Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, of the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine in Washington, D.C., and colleagues in JAMA Network Open.
On the other hand, those overweight adults in the control group who made no dietary changes at all maintained their weight throughout the 4-month trial.
Participants on the low-fat vegan diet also reaped several other benefits as well.
- They measure the amount of calories burned 3 hours after eating and found the vegan group showed a 14 percent more calorie burn due to the thermic effect of food intake. The thermic effect of food is the energy required for digestion, absorption, and disposal of ingested nutrients. In addition, this dietary change increased the insulin sensitivity as the subjects of the study lost weight.
- The researchers also found a significant decrease in lipid levels (fatty acid in blood) among those on the low-fat vegan diet. Specifically, this diet helped overweight adults achieve a 34.4% decrease in liver fat levels and a 10.4% decrease in intramuscular cellular fat levels.
All the above changes are important control and reversing type 2 Diabetes.
A plant-based diet helps maintain a healthy weight. Staying at a healthy weight is one of the most important things you can do to reduce your risk for cancer. When it comes to cancer, the only thing more important than maintaining a healthy weight, is not smoking.
This is because excess weight causes inflammation and hormonal imbalance. If you are overweight or obese, your risk is higher for 12 different types of cancer including colorectal, post-menopausal breast, uterine, esophageal, kidney and pancreatic cancers.
If you eat mostly plants, you remove many of the foods that lead to weight gain. Add in exercise and you’re on a path towards weight loss.
Plants are high in fiber. Fiber is present in all unprocessed plant foods. It is what makes up the structure of the plant, and if you eat more of it you access a whole host of benefits.
Eating a plant-based diet improves the health of your gut so you are better able to absorb the nutrients from food that support your immune system and reduce inflammation. Fiber can lower cholesterol and stabilize blood sugar and it’s great for good bowel management.
Fiber is very important for reducing your cancer risk. This is especially true for your risk for the third most common cancer: colorectal cancer.
With our cars most of us are very carful as to what kind of gas, oil or transmission fluid we use, yet the irony is we take no thought what kind of food we eat or what we drink to fuel our bodies. Whatever your dietary preference, for the sake of your overall health increase your plant based portions in your diet.
