Vegan Diets for Weight Loss and Diabetes Control - it's easier than you think.

Posted by Jill Harris Feb 5, 2009

More evidence this week that vegetarianism – and veganism – are picking up steam. One Toronto dietitian even goes as far as to ask “Is a vegan diet the new “non-diet”?

Toronto Dietitian Leslie Beck writes a weekly article about food and nutrition for the Globe and Mail. This week, her focus turned to the ease at which a vegan diet can you’re peoples’ health around, for the better.

A recent study compared the effects of an American Diabetes Association diet with a vegan diet emphasizing low Glycemic Index (GI) vegetables.

Some may find it remarkable that people in the group that ate the vegan diet lost weight; saw their blood sugar and LDL cholesterol drop; and ended up with a decreased need for diabetes medication. What is truly remarkable, however, is the very positive light cast on the vegan diet. And how little of an explanation was given as to its “rules”. The story makes the obligatory nods to the nutrients that may be deficient in a vegan diet – but continues without many of the caveats usually associated with stories about vegans.

Beck even notes that the diet was well-received by the participants assigned to it. This and other studies have found that while preparing a vegetarian or vegan diet is difficult at first, it does become easier over time. People seemed to be totally adjusted to preparing their new diets within 18 months to two years. Such is not the case with a low-calorie diet. In fact, vegans often report they can eat as much as they want without gaining weight.

In the comments for the article Top 10 Vegetarian Snacks, some readers have been debating whether or not it is easy to be vegan. If it truly wasn’t an adjustment from our typical dietary patterns, more people would certainly do it.

These studies suggest that while the health benefits of vegetarian diets start soon after beginning it, two years is all the toughing-out it takes to sustain it.

Read Leslie Beck’s article: Vegan diet has surprising stick-to-it-iveness. Published at the Globeandmail.com on February 4, 2009.