Vegans Lose More Weight, New Scientific Review Says

Filed in archive Studies on April 5, 2006

It has been preached (and still is!) that putting more vegetables (if not replacing) into your diet will lead to major weight loss and healthier you. Well, it has been reinforced by the compiled scientific nutrition reviews:

A scientific review in April's Nutrition Reviews shows that a vegetarian diet is highly effective for weight loss. Vegetarian populations tend to be slimmer than meat-eaters, and they experience lower rates of heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, and other life-threatening conditions linked to overweight and obesity.

The review compiled data from 87 previous studies and shows that weight-loss effect does not depend on exercise or calorie counting. Weight loss occurs significantly if at a rate of 1 pound per week.

The authors found that the body weight of both male and female vegetarians is, on average, 3 percent to 20 percent lower than that of meat-eaters. Vegetarian and vegan diets have also been put to the test in clinical studies, as the review notes. The best of these clinical studies isolated the effects of diet by keeping exercise constant. The researchers found that a low-fat vegan diet leads to weight loss of about 1 pound per week, even without additional exercise or limits on portion sizes, calories, or carbohydrates.

The scientific review shows that people can enjoy unlimited portions of high-fiber foods such as fruits, vegetables, and whole grains to achieve or maintain a healthy body weight without feeling hungry.

Source: EurekAlert