If you hold some reservations about becoming a vegetarian, below are some of the top reasons why you should switch to the vegan diet today.
1: Weight Loss
If you are conscientious about your body, then sticking to a vegan diet will positively impact your body weight and figure. Vegans tend to weigh less because their diets have fewer calories found in fruits, grains, nuts, seeds, vegetables, and legumes. Plan foods are not harsh to the digestive system. Moreover, most vegans are aware of their dietary choices to ensure what they eat is healthy and better.
2: Disease Prevention
Since vegan diets contain fewer saturated fats, they have been found to promote heart health, lowering heart disease risk. It also has been found that vegetarian diets reduce the risk of many health complications associated with modern western diets, such as hypertension, coronary heart disease, dietary cancers, gall stones, diverticulitis, and constipation.
Extensive research attributes this to the increased intake of flavonoids, fiber, antioxidants, carotenoids, and phytonutrients. Commercial meat, seafood, and poultry contain foodborne illnesses, parasites, bacteria, and chemical toxins compared with plant-based foods, especially organically produced fruits and veggies. The vegan diet also eliminates the inclusion of processed foods. And nowadays, you can get all the flavour of dairy and even meats – yes there is such thing as vegan meat. If you’re interested you ca check out the best plant based meats and try them for yourself.
3: Balancing Hormones
Hormonal imbalance can lead to cancers and other health issues. For instance, increased estrogen can trigger breast cancer. According to a New York study, increased estrogen levels are linked to high animal fat consumption. As such, vegans are less likely to develop such complications because of a low-fat content in their meals compared to people that love eating meat. Furthermore, vegans have more of some carrier molecules, like the sex hormone-binding globulin, circulating in their blood, thus keeping the hormones inactive until they are needed. A high-fat diet will increase estrogen levels in the body.
4: Better Skin
Vegetarians have been found to have better eyesight and less macular degeneration, which can be attributed to the healthy vitamin C intake and subsequent collagen leading to better skin.
5: Fewer Migraines
While helping low the probability of certain diseases, a vegan diet could also reduce the onset of migraines. Studies suggest that migraines are closely linked to our diets, meaning what we eat becomes a trigger. Cheese and chocolate are some of the top culprits. While vegans might indulge in them once in a while, they prefer organic foods that are far purer and less likely to trigger a migraine attack.
6: Enhanced Athletic Performance
While many physically active individuals focus more on protein intake, many athletes and sports professionals switch to a high-carbs, mineral, and vitamin-rich, healthy-fat vegan diet for better performance. Although conflicting studies exist, more and more vegetarian sportspersons continue to rise. For instance, Serena and Venus Williams, the world tennis stars, announced they would go vegan in 2011.
7: Preserving The Environment
Meat production and other animal products significantly impact the environment – from water and the crops to feed the animals to transportation and processing. The massive amounts of feed needed to feed animals for meat production are among the leading contributors to the increased deforestation and loss of vital habitats resulting in species extinction. But a plant-based diet does less harm since it requires little energy and farmland to feed vegetarians.
