It is no lie that western industrialized societies has big problems with obesity, poor health and diseases. One of the main reasons is that the rich Western diet is packed with high fat, high protein and lots of refined and processed foods & drinks. This may very likely be the underlying causes of high death and disability from cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
In the last decade it has been more and more wellknown that we with lifestyle can change peoples health. Here has plant-based lifestyle been a big winner. Plants have high levels of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals and they also fight inflammation.
If we look at one of the biggest problems in western societies, then overweight and obesity is something worth fighting for. There are big health benefits for people when losing weight. It shows that having a high BMI you will likely deal with some sort of lifestyle disease during a lifespan. Lifestyle diseases is associated with the way a person lives their life. Which means it’s, very likely to be cured and reversed.
Eat as much food you want
Until now, nutritionist and doctors has put people on diet with less food. Over eating they say is what causes overweight. That is partly true, because eating a lot of foods of bad quality lead to overweight. Studies has found that eating unlimited plant-based foods will lead to weight-loss and disease reversal.
One studie looked at the effects of a 7 days ad libitum low-fat vegan diet. The objective of this study was to document the effects of eating a low-fat (≤10% of calories), high-carbohydrate (~80% of calories), moderate-sodium, purely plant-based diet on ad libitum for 7 days and the effects it can have on cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes.
They found that this way of eating showed a significant positive changes in commonly tested biomarkers that are used to predict future risks for cardiovascular disease and metabolic diseases. There was big decrease in total cholesterol. Blood pressure decreased. Even blood glucose went down on this high carbohydrate-based diet.
8 weeks with healthy plant-based foods
Another studie put participants on a 8-week group whole-food plant-based-program also utilizing an ad-libitum way of eating. Those with higher BMI lost a larger percentage of their body weight. Final blood pressure and plasma lipids was reduced. Total cholesterol decreased and LDL decreased. Some participants were able to decrease or stop at least one chronic medication.
Here is something even more interesting. Participants who were already vegetarian or vegan from start experienced significant weight loss, reductions in total and LDL cholesterol and better health. Which shows that just being vegan or vegetarian in its self isn’t good enough to have a healthy lifestyle.
These findings show that a plant-based, high carbohydrate and low fat diet can help many people, from non-vegans to vegans & vegetarians. There is a lot more studies which show same results. With these results it indicates that poor diet quality is the leading cause of death both in the United States and worldwide.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/25311617/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/31484341/
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19339401/