How do healthier plant-based diets compare to unhealthy plant and animal foods when it comes to diabetes risk?
In my video on flexitarians, I discuss how the benefits of eating a plant-based diet are not all or nothing. “Simple tips to increase the consumption of foods of plant origin with compensatory measures [parallel] “Reductions in the consumption of foods of animal origin confer a survival advantage”: an advantage of living longer. Researchers call it a “pro-vegetarian” eating pattern, one that moves in the direction of vegetarianism, “a more gradual and gentle approach.”
However, if you are dealing with a serious illness, such as diabetes, completely “avoiding some problematic foods is easier than trying to moderate their intake. Doctors would never tell an alcoholic to simply try to reduce their alcohol consumption. Avoiding alcohol completely is more effective and, in fact, easier for a problem drinker… Paradoxically, asking patients to make a major change may be more effective than making a slow transition. Dietary studies show that recommending more significant changes increases the chances that patients will be able to achieve them. [them]. It may be helpful to replace the common advice, “everything in moderation,” with “big changes lead to big results.” Success breeds success. After a few days or weeks of major dietary changes, patients are likely to see improvements in weight and blood glucose. [sugar] levels: improvements that reinforce the dietary changes that caused them. Plus, they can enjoy other health benefits of a plant-based diet” that can give them added motivation.
As you can see below and at minute 1:43 of my video. Friday Favorites: Is Vegan Food Always Healthy?those who choose to eat plant foods for their health say It is mainly for “general well-being or general disease prevention” or to improve your energy levels or immune function, for example.
They felt that it gives them a sense of control over their health, helps them feel better emotionally, improves their overall health, makes them feel better and more, as shown below and at 1:48. Most felt It was very important to maintain your health and well-being.
For the minority who used it for a specific health problem, mainly high cholesterol or weight loss, followed by high blood pressure and diabetes, the majority reported that they felt it helped them a lot, as you can see below and in minute 2: 14. 
Some choose plant-based diets for other reasons, such as animal welfare or global warming, and it appears that “ethical vegans” are more likely to eat sugary and fatty foods, such as vegan donuts, compared to those who eat plant products for religious or health reasons, as you can see below and at minute 2:26 of my video.
The most vegan-friendly vegan could make an egg- and dairy-free cake, topped with frosting, marshmallow fluff, and chocolate syrup, topped with Oreo cookies, and served with a side of Doritos. Or maybe they want fruit for dessert, but in the form of Pop-Tarts and Krispy Kreme cakes. Vegan, yes. Healthy, no.
“Plant-based diets have been recommended to reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, not all plant foods are necessarily beneficial.” In the pro-vegetarian scoring system I mentioned above, get points for eating potato chips and fries because they are technically plant-based, as you can see below and at 3:07 in my videobut the Harvard researchers wanted examine the association of not only a general plant-based diet, but also healthy and unhealthy versions. So, they created the same kind of pro-vegetarian scoring system, but it was skewed toward any type of plant-based food and against animal-based foods; Next, they created a healthy plant-based diet index, where at least some whole plant foods took priority and Coca-Cola and other sweetened drinks were no longer considered plants. Finally, they created an unhealthy plant-based diet index by assigning positive scores to processed plant-based junk and negative scores to healthier plant and animal foods.
Your findings? As you can see below and at minute 3:51 in my videoa more plant-based diet, in general, was good for reducing the risk of diabetes, but eating especially healthy plant foods fared better, almost halving the risk, while those who ate more unhealthy plant foods fared worse, as shown in the graph below and in the minute 4:03.
Now, is that because they also ate more animal foods? People usually eat hamburgers with fries, researchers say pulled apart The effects of healthy plant foods, less healthy plant foods, and animal foods on diabetes risk. And they found that healthy plant foods were protectively associated, animal foods were detrimentally associated, and less healthy plant foods were more neutral when it came to diabetes risk. Down and at 4:32 in me videoyou can see the graph sample an increased risk of diabetes with more and more animal-based foods, no protection with junk plant foods, and a decreasing risk of diabetes associated with more and more healthy, whole plant foods in the diet. So, they concluded that yes, “plant-based diets… are associated with a substantially lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.” However, it may not be enough to simply reduce your intake of animal foods; You may also need to reduce your consumption of less healthy plant foods.
As a doctor, labels like vegetarian and vegan Just tell me what you don’t eat, but there are a lot of unhealthy vegetarian dishes, like French fries, French fries, and soda. That’s why I prefer the term whole foods and plant-based nutrition. That tells me what you eat: a diet focused on the healthiest foods there are.
The video I mentioned is Do flexitarians live longer?.
You may also be interested in some of my most popular videos and blogs from the past on plant-based diets. Check out related posts below.
