16. Nutrition (part 3)
The past
When I was growing up, you rarely heard the word vegetarian. My sister would only eat fish and no other meat and I thought she was just a bit weird but she called herself a vegetarian. I was always a meat eater and so regarded myself as an omnivore (somebody who ate plants and animals)…the non-meat eaters being referred to as herbivores. These phrases are outdated it seems now!
The present
I haven’t heard those terms for many years. In present times we hear of vegans, pescetarians, flexitarians and so on…but what do they actually mean and is there any difference to us in terms of our health?
Here is my attempt to try and make it simple (there are actually even more than these!):
Vegans:
YES: Plants
NO: Dairy, Eggs, Seafood, Any meat
Lacto-ovo-vegetarians:
YES: Plants, Dairy, Eggs
NO: Seafood, Any meat
Pescetarians:
YES: Plants, Dairy, Eggs, Seafood
NO: Meat
Pollotarians:
YES: Plants, Dairy, Eggs, Poultry
NO: Seafood
Semi-vegetarians/Flexitarians:
A phrase of the 2020s! This is me. I generally eat a lacto-ovo-vegetarian diet but occasionally will have seafood or poultry (maybe once a week). Other phrases are “plant-rich” or “plant-predominant”. It can all be rather confusing BUT are any of these diets more important than the other in determining our health and longevity?
The studies:
In this study, if we look at the number of people with type 2 diabetes and call this factor 1.0 (the baseline) and then look at the prevalence in other groups, the numbers would be 0.72 (semi-veg), 0.49 (pesco), 0.22 (vegans). Quite simply, the study saw type 2 diabetes FIVE times less in vegans than in non-vegetarians. That’s astounding!
Another aspect of the Adventist Study was reductions in all cause mortality (death from anything), cardiovascular disease and cancer in all vegetarian groups compared to non-vegetarians. This is one of the most robust studies we have comparing the diets and it goes into way more detail if you want to read it further.
The future?
2022 seems to be the year for vegetarianism. We are hearing so much more about plant based products, vegan-uary, flexitarians etc etc. I’m hoping to consider reducing my meat consumption even further based on the evidence that it will potentially allow me to live for longer.
I'm not trying to convert people to vegetarianism by the way, merely present some of the scientific data behind some of my own choices.
As a reminder, all of the information I am providing is designed to (hopefully) give people a sense of hope and opportunity with regards to the 6 pillars of lifestyle medicine. So far we have discussed (briefly) stress, sleep, physical activity and nutrition. In myself, I have managed to lower my blood pressure and hopefully reduce my risks of developing heart disease, cancer and other diseases. My journey has really only just begun but I will continue to expand more as time goes by and aim to add a new blog each week.