Why a 30-day all-in vegan diet is the health experiment everyone should try
Whether you’re vegan-curious or consider a vegan diet something you’d never do, for the sake of your health, you should try a vegan, whole-food, plant-based diet for at least 30 days.
If you do, I’m confident you won’t go back to your old ways. You’re simply going to feel better, and, as many proponents of a whole-food, plant-based diet say, nothing tastes as good as feeling good.
Chances are you have some health issues you’re dealing with. That is, whether you’re American, European, or Australian, it’s likely your health is less than ideal. Half of the population in the United States suffers from at least one chronic disease. Likewise, 85% of all EU deaths result from a chronic disease. And nearly half of Australians have one chronic condition.
Moreover, a 2023 Washington Post analysis found that in the U.S. “chronic diseases erase more than twice as many years of life among people younger than 65 as all the overdoses, homicides, suicides, and car accidents combined.”
A vegan, whole-food, plant-based diet can help you reverse or prevent these chronic diseases.
So, why haven’t your doctors recommended a vegan diet? And what benefits will you begin to experience when you make the switch? The below post looks at why this approach to health has been overlooked by mainstream medicine and presents just a few of the most significant benefits you’ll experience if you adopt it.
Why your doctors haven’t told you to go vegan
If a healthy plant-based diet (one consisting primarily of whole plant foods) is such a powerful tool for preventing and reversing chronic conditions, why isn’t the medical establishment shouting this from the rooftops?
I wondered the same thing after first seeing the documentary Forks Over Knives. Why was that the first time I was hearing this message despite having worked at the National Institutes of Health?
I then proceeded to investigate whether the scientific and medical claims I heard in the movie were accurate, and I found that they were.
So, why haven’t more doctors caught on? We’re presently in a moment that is akin to the 1930s through 50s when doctors recommended smoking and smoked themselves. That is, despite decades of research supporting the benefits of a whole-food, plant-based diet, doctors aren’t following such a diet themselves or recommending it. And there are multiple reasons why:
- Most doctors receive little nutrition training during medical school
- Doctors are taught a model of diagnosing and treating chronic diseases with pills rather than preventing or reversing them through lifestyle
- Doctors simply don’t know about the research, are eating unhealthy diets themselves, and are dying of the same chronic diseases as their patients
There are a number of videos that explain why doctors don’t recommend a whole-food, plant-based diet, but this one, from a past President of the American College of Cardiology, is the most succinct.
A whole-food, plant-based diet provides greater, more consistent energy levels
One of the benefits of going all-in on whole plant foods is that you’ll have better energy levels throughout the day. Instead of a meal zapping your energy, a meal will power you to get things done.
While I can’t point to any clinical studies that I’m aware of on how a vegan diet improves your energy, there are an abundance of anecdotal reports, such as this one and this one.
My own experience is consistent with these accounts. Powered by whole plant foods, you feel more energized and don’t experience any so-called food comas. And that energy tends to last longer too.
The energy increase from switching to a whole-food, plant-based diet is one you’ll notice pretty soon after making the switch, and one reason why I don’t recommend people gradually phase out animal products and ultra-processed foods. When you make the transition slowly, you don’t experience the full benefits of the switch and therefore aren’t as motivated to stick with it.
You’ll lose weight
Another thing you’re likely to notice even within 30 days of going vegan is that you’ll lose weight even while eating mostly what would be considered carbohydrates: fruit, vegetables, potatoes, and whole grains. The reason for this is that whole foods, while filling and nutritious, are not calorically dense. As this article from the American College of Lifestyle Medicine explains, “Fiber and water in whole plant foods promote satiety with lower caloric density more than animal-based foods, thus allowing the body to reach its natural weight setpoint without deprivation.”
Studies confirm that a whole-food plant based diet is an effective strategy for losing weight and sustaining your ideal weight. As this research review article says, “current evidence indicates that a whole food, plant-based diet achieves greater weight loss compared with other dietary interventions that do not restrict calories or mandate exercise.”
These studies show that, despite what you may have heard, healthy carbs are not the enemy.
You’ll reduce your risk of chronic disease and potentially reverse any that you have
Not only will you feel energized and weigh less, when you go vegan, you’ll actually improve your health and longevity. Numerous studies have shown the benefits of a healthy vegan diet (that is, a whole-food, plant-based diet) in reducing your risk of chronic diseases, such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and cancer. For example, one study found that a healthy plant-based diet was associated with a lower risk of mortality and major chronic diseases among adults in the UK.
Likewise, the more plant-based your diet is, the better your chances of remission and survival after a diagnosis of breast or colon cancer. A healthy vegan diet is also the only diet shown to arrest and reverse atherosclerotic plaques in the heart arteries. You can learn more about how this diet removes artery plaque in the below video:
You’ll lower your risk of COVID-19 infection and moderate to severe COVID-19 symptoms
A plant-based diet is also associated with a lower risk of moderate-to-severe COVID-19, according to a 2021 study. The same study found that, compared to those following a plant-based diet, those following a low-carb, high protein diet had close to a four-times greater risk of moderate-to-severe COVID-19. Again: stop listening to whomever is telling you not to eat healthy carbohydrates.
Another study also found a lower risk of COVID-19 infection and severe symptoms for those eating a “diet characterized by healthy plant-based foods.” Commenting on these studies and others, a research review article states, “At present, the best available evidence suggests that PBDs [plant-based diets] are beneficial in directly reducing the risk of severe COVID-19 symptoms and the risk of infection, this reduction being independent of other health-related factors.”
If you’d like to learn about even more studies on plant-based diets and COVID-19, check out The Best Diet for COVID and Long-COVID.
Don’t be a SAD zombie
Given all the health benefits of a plant-based diet (and this article only scratches the surface of those benefits), why would you continue to eat a standard American diet (SAD)? I suspect the answer is because it’s what you’re used to. It’s what everyone else is doing. It’s easy.
But doing what everyone else is doing just makes you a zombie (film zombies were originally a metaphor for mindless conformity). And eating the SAD diet just because it’s what everyone else is doing makes you a SAD zombie.
Why be a SAD zombie when you can be a healthy, happy human with agency? Clear your plate of animal products, and clear your conscience about contributing to animal suffering, all the while improving your health and reducing your risk of COVID-19. Just give it 30 days to start so that it doesn’t seem so daunting.
Still worried it will be hard? It’s not. Check out my guide, which walks you through how to make the switch in as easy and painless a way as possible.
Originally published on veganlaunchpad.com on October 9, 2023.
