Is a vegan diet healthier than eating meat and dairy? - BBC
I found an interesting article, though, the result was that I didn't want to understand. And then, I thought that the title will be better how your body processes sugar than vegan vs meat. I like cookies and chocolates more than meat. Instead of usually meals, I eat sweets and bread. Even bread includes a lot of sugar. Recently, eating meat is a big problem, though, I thought that for our health, sugar is the worst.
In the video, Hugo sits on the right, and Ross sits on the left.
00:4
Hugo: We have been exploring adventuring for the last 10 years, and a big part of adventuring is preparing your body. For us, trying to keep our fitness interesting and trying to keep ourselves motivated. We tend to try and focus on these three months' segments of fitness.
Ross: Because we're genetically identical. We can compare various different foods, training regimes and find out what works for us. So we wanted to test plants v animals. What was the best? What were the benefits? What was the drawback? and uncover something new.
VEGAN VS MEAT An experiment with identical twins
0:45
Hugo: We dubbed ourselves as the adventure guinea pigs because over the years we've taken part in research at the Department of Twin Research at King's College London.
Dr. Tim Spector: We wanted to use the model of identical twins who are genetic clones in order to test the effects of diet and exercise on the way they respond to foods.
The Turner twins engaged in a 12-week experiment... in which Hogo turned vegan...and Ross continued eating meat. They were both getting the same number of calories per day and doing the same gym training. As a first-time vegan, Hugo's body struggled... to adjust in the beginning.
1:28
Hugo: I was on the vegan diet, and it does take a hit on your body. I think the first couple of weeks it was the craving of wanting meat and dairy and cheese. Love cheese. I was now having to eat fruit and nuts and alternatives that didna7t have any dairy and so that meant I was eating a lot more wholesome food which meant that my sugar levels were o lot more satiated during the day I felt like I had more energy.
Ross: Performance was up and down a little bit more for me on my meat diet I'd have a few days before I was very energetic in the gym and then I'd have huge lulls as well whereas Hugo is far more sustained and associated with energy levels.
It's not just the amount of sugar you're eating that matters. It's how your body processes sugar.
2:12
Dr. Tim Spector: I think the interesting thing is how they differ in their responses to sugars and fats despite being identical twins Ross was actually above average for the way he processed fats and sugars whereas Hugo was below average.
Professor Spector has found similar results. In other large-scale studies with identical twins.
Dr. Tim Spector: We believe that there's a big, non-genetic element that is driven a lot by our microbes.
Recent scientific studies have shown that ... trillions of different friendly microbes live in our gut.
2:51
Dr. Tim Spector: If you treat them right, they will produce thousands of different chemicals that will keep your body in the best shape. They will help your immune system to fight infections. They will go to your brain to make you not feel over hungry or not stressed or depressed. We find, on average, that most identical twins only share between 25 and 30 percent of their microbes with each other, and we think this is why many of their metabolism is different and they react to foods differently. And that's in a way, an example of why all of us react differently to foods.
Hugo: Being a vegan and going through that 12 week-period my diversity of gut bacteria severely dropped.
Ross: Whereas mine stayed the same, which meant that I was less susceptible to illness.
Dr. Tim Spector: It could be that the diversity he was getting from dairy products and those other fats in meats led to a slight reduction in the diversity. They're already in the top five percent of their gut microbiome health, so it's hard for them to push it further than that.
Hugo and Ross are healthy athletes. But for those starting from a low nutrition baseline...the recipe to better nourish your gut 'garden' is diversity.
4:05
Dr. Tim Spector: So the first thing is to give yourself a try and aim to have 30 different plants a week- to give it that diversity. The second is to always try and pick plants that have these natural chemicals called polyphenols in them which gives them bright colors or bitter tastes. Things like brightly colored berries or nuts or seeds, things like coffee, things like dark chocolate, and even red wine. Thirdly, probiotics- having foods that contain live microbes themselves like traditional yogurt, kefir, kombucha. And finally, it's cutting out ultra-processed food,
Ross: Watching Hugo eat all his vegan food. you do realize how much processed or, I say crap food, you do eat compared to a vegan. And you do because quite aware. You feel guilty the whole time when you're next to somebody eating very, very healthy food.
Dr. Tim Spector: On average, vegans are healthier than meat-eaters, but within that, there's a huge range and there are some very unhealthy vegans and vegan diets. And it does depend on the quality of the food. It’s not about whether you have meat on your plate or not. And many vegans often find themselves eating ultra-processed food, because of reformulating standard foods particularly dairy substitutes and meat substitutes- that are probably as unhealthy as eating processed meats.
Overall, Hugo and Ross' results were not that disparate.
5:36
Hugo: The medical and scientific research that monitors us all agrees that there's not a huge difference. if any between the two diets. It's just the small ones that we both have high cholesterol because we lose a lot of weight on expeditions.
Ross: Hugo's cholesterol dropped off the scale on the vegan diet, whereas my regular meat diet just stayed the same.
Hugo: My obesity level dropped. My resistance to type two diabetes also increased.
Dr. Tim Spector: They're looking for small incremental effects that athletes tend to look at. It's very much understanding how your body's working so you can tailor your nutrition optimally and athletes do it to improve performance. Normal humans would do it just to feel less tired, feel less hungry. Put on less weight over a year.
This all helps us to understand that there is no universal diet... that works the same for everybody. Even when they share the same genes.
6:36
Hugo: I've slightly changed my diet in the sense that I eat a lot more different things- eat the rainbow, eat everything in moderation.
Ross: You have a balanced diet- that's really the key, I think if somebody says 'Right, you need to do this certain diet with these weights to get the results. Question it a little bit, Just go and have fun with it. Experiment, find out what works for you.
