September 19, 2022

Vegan Diet for Heart Health

Nowadays, people are switching to a vegan diet for heart health and multiple other benefits. A vegan diet or Plant-based meal is all about eating foods that do contain any animal derivatives. Such food items are referred to by the adjective “cruelty-free," meaning no animals have been harmed to produce them. Experts believe that a plant-based diet can be good for the human heart. Eating vegetables, whole grains, foods, soy, and nuts instead of meat tends to lower your risk of developing conditions like:

Heart disease
High cholesterol
Type-2 diabetes
High blood pressure

A vegan diet doesn’t even include dairy products. People may get confused between vegan and Lacto-vegetarian. The difference is that Lacto-vegetarians don’t eat meat and eggs but consume dairy products.

Study Highlights

As per a study published by the National Library of Medicine, the association between a vegetarian diet and the risk of cardiovascular disease in India was evaluated. After a few studies conducted in the West with greater emphasis on a Vegan diet, four regions of India were studied.

Participants in the study were urban migrants from Lucknow, Nagpur, Hyderabad, and Bangalore with a mean age of 40.9 years, as well as their rural siblings and urban inhabitants. A validated interviewer-administered semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to gather information on diet. Other factors included tobacco, medical history, blood pressure, alcohol, physical history, fasting blood, and anthropometric measurements. Eggs, fish, poultry, and meat were not consumed by vegetarians. They investigated the relationship between vegetarian diets and blood cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein (LDL), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), triglycerides, fasting blood glucose (FBG), and systolic & diastolic blood pressure. To do so, they used reliable standard error multivariate linear regression models (DBP).

With this analysis, the researchers came to the following conclusions:

A beneficial link between a vegetarian diet and a low risk of cardiovascular disease was found.
Vegetarians had a comparatively decreased systolic blood pressure. BP was evaluated because it is one of the primary factors contributing to heart health.
Vegetarians also had a low fasting blood glucose level in comparison with non-vegetarians.

Since the comparison was made between vegetarians and non-vegetarians, it becomes relevant to praise the vegan diet benefits. That’s because a vegan meal doesn’t even contain any dairy products like milk, curd, and cheese.

According to a study published in the Journal of the American Heart Association, a relationship between a decreased risk of heart disease and a vegan diet was found. While the study shows the importance of vegetables and fruits, it doesn’t strictly claim that only veganism can help beat heart problems. It can be one of the factors to be studied and looked upon.

With veganism, you may consider the following healthy lifestyle changes:

Get active and maintain healthy body weight. Obese people are more susceptible to heart issues.
Push yourself to quit smoke of any kind. Try to be less exposed to second-hand smoke including the exhaled smoke of cigars, pipes, hookahs, etc.
Manage your blood sugar, blood pressure, and cholesterol levels.
Manage your stress level and avoid the consumption of alcohol.

After all, your little effort to maintain good health makes you less vulnerable to diseases.