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Hello,

People are making changes in their diets daily.  I don’t think that I could make the change to a vegan diet but many people have.  Please enjoy the article.

Me,
Give Up Meat? Vegan Diets Surging in Popularity

The pros (and a few cons)
of choosing a vegan diet

By Angela Haupt

July 24, 2012

Former President Bill Clinton had a legendary appetite: Hamburgers
and steaks.
Barbeque. Chicken enchiladas. But after having two stents inserted in 2010—on
top of quadruple bypass surgery six years earlier—he radically changed his diet
in the name of saving his health. Now a vegan, the strictest type of
vegetarian, he has cut out meat, dairy, eggs, and most oils in favor of a
super-low-fat diet that revolves around whole grains, fruits, vegetables,
beans, and nuts. It appears to be working: He has said he’s dropped more than
20 pounds and has never been healthier. In a televised interview with film
producer Harvey Weinstein in June, Clinton explained that he’d decided he
wanted to live to be a grandfather. “So I just went all the way. Getting
rid of the dairy was great, getting rid of the meat was—I just don’t miss
it.”

Vegan diets have lately
been surging in popularity, thanks in part to the example of celebrities
who are publicly forswearing all animal products (Michelle Pfeiffer, Carrie
Underwood, Russell Brand, and Ozzy Osbourne, to name a few others). Ellen
DeGeneres and Portia de Rossi have announced plans to open a vegan restaurant
in Los Angeles. Vegan-centric books have been flying off the shelf, including
Alicia Silverstone’s The Kind Diet and The Engine 2 Diet by Texas
firefighter and triathlete Rip Esselstyn, son of retired Cleveland Clinic
physician Caldwell Esselstyn, whose research on the merits of plant-based
eating inspired Bill Clinton. Vegan food trucks are
making the rounds, schools are instituting meat-free days, and colleges are
opening vegan dining halls.

While many vegans still take the stand because they believe in
animal rights, a growing number are swayed by mounting research showing a
profound impact on health. “It’s dramatic,” says Neal Barnard, a
nutrition researcher and adjunct professor of medicine at the George Washington
University School of Medicine in Washington, D.C., and president of the
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine, a nonprofit group that promotes
preventive medicine. “We’ve seen people whose chest pain has gone away
within weeks, while their weight melts off, blood pressure goes down, and
cholesterol plummets.” Barnard’s 2011 book 21-Day Weight Loss Kickstart is a three-week
introduction to the case for and how-tos of the vegan life. The panel of 22
experts who analyzed 25 diets for U.S. News’s ratings of the best
eating plans overall—as well as the best for weight loss, heart health, and diabetes
management and prevention—are not universally sold on absolute meatlessness.
But without a doubt, the heavily plant-based plans tend to rise to the top of
the U.S. News lists.

Exactly how you shape a vegan meal plan is up to you, but you’ll
typically aim for six servings of grains from bread and
calcium-fortified cereal, for example; five servings of protein-rich foods such
as legumes, nuts, peanut butter, chickpeas, tofu, potatoes, and soy milk; and
four servings of veggies, two of fruit, and two of healthy fats like avocado,
coconut oil, and olive oil.
(Both of the Esselstyns advocate avoiding all oils, too.) There’s no need to
give up dessert, although you’ll be baking without butter or eggs.

It should come as no surprise that becoming a serious vegan is apt
to help you lose weight. By loading up on fruits, veggies, and whole grains,
vegans tend to feel full on fewer calories, and indeed they tend to weigh less
and have a lower body mass index than their meat-eating peers. In a 2006 study
coauthored by Barnard, 99 people with type 2 diabetes followed either a vegan
diet or a standard diet based on American Diabetes Association guidelines.
After 22 weeks, the vegans lost an average of 13 pounds, compared to 9 in the
ADA group. Both groups’ control of their blood sugar levels also improved.

The cardiac case. A
meatless diet’s power against heart disease also is well documented. “It’s
an exceptionally healthy diet, especially when it comes to cardiac
health,” says Michael Davidson, director of preventive cardiology at the
University of Chicago Medical Center. He notes that cutting way back on
saturated fat and eliminating cholesterol is just part of the equation; also
key is piling on “cardiac protective” fruits, vegetables, and grains,
packed with antioxidants and other phytochemicals that protect cells from
damage caused by free radicals. The soluble fiber found in plant protein also
helps to lower cholesterol. In the 2006 Diabetes
Care report, LDL cholesterol dropped 21.2 percent in the vegan group
after 22 weeks, compared with 10.7 percent in the group following the
meat-allowing guidelines. Triglycerides fell from 140.3 mg/dL to 118.2. In an
earlier 12-year study that compared 6,000 vegetarians and vegans with 5,000
meat-eaters, researchers found that vegans had a 57 percent lower risk of
ischemic heart disease—reduced heart pumping due to coronary artery disease,
which often leads to heart failure—than the meat-eaters. Vegetarians had a 24
percent lower risk.

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