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coreconcepts -> Re: Health Effects of Exercise (April 20, 2005 8:24:00 AM)
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Jason,
I am going to continue our vegan/health benefits discussion on this thread. Here was your last thought on the subject.
"Briefly, a vegan(whole foods, plant-based diet - no meat or dairy products/eggs) has been shown to reduce both the incidence and the progression of CAD.
There are volumes of evidence for this in terms of epidemiological studies, and some significant evidence in interventional studies.
Exercise alone has not been shown to be beneficial for CAD.
Your statement about a vegan diet not reducing risk factors is curious. Surely consumption of saturated fat is well known as a risk factor for CAD, and a vegan diet reduces that. Epidemiological studies show that those on a mostly vegan diet have extremely low rates of CAD, even when they are relatively inactive.
Hey, I'm all for exercise, too, but we shouldn't oversell it if the research isn't there, right?"
My take is this: It is very difficult to establish that vegan/vegetarian diets are exclusively attributable to reducing disease risk such as cardiovascular disease, blood pressure, blood lipids, etc. This is primarily due to the fact that there is such a wide range in terms of how vegetarians eat and live. Are any of these "numerous epidemiological studies" you meantion in the absence of other lifestyle changes such as exercise? It has been well documented that vegans/vegetarians generally exercise far more and smoke far less than do non-vegetarians. Conversely, you could still technically be a "vegan" and eat refined carbohydrates, sugars/pastries and other snacks high in trans fats. This would obviously negate any advantage to a diet low in saturated fat. In terms of exercise... I agree, exercise alone is often not sufficient, but I maintain that neither is diet alone if you are sitting on your duff all day. It takes a holistic and often aggressive approach to reverse the course of certain dieseases.
Numerous studies show important and quantifiable benefits of the DIFFERENT COMPONENTS of vegetarian diets, namely the reduction of risk for many chronic diseases and the increase in longevity. The components in question are vegetables and fruits (which have independently been shown to reduce the risk of many diseases). Whole grains are also valuable components of a healthy diet.
So let me put this I'll put this question out to you - Do you not think that one who is active could achieve the same health benefits as vegan's/vegetarians if one ate adequate vegetables/fruits/whole grains but also enjoyed meat? What I am getting at is that the absence of meat per se, is not the key factor here - it is the high consumption of veggies, fruits, whole grains, heatlhy fats and exercise.
"Surely consumption of saturated fat is well known as a risk factor for CAD, and a vegan diet reduces that".
Perhaps, but the evidence here is remarkably scanty. The proposition that dietary fat is unhealthy is based on the fact that high intakes of saturated fat elevate cholesterol and thus increase the risk for atherosclerosis, which in turn raises risk for CAD. Having said that, the link between high cholesterol and CAD is FAR stronger than the link between high saturated fat intake and high cholesterol. Also, saturated fats are FAR from the only cause of heart disease, which is multifactoral. In fact, the results of studies on the etiology of HD are inconclusive at best and contradictory at worse. Many other factors are likely more culpable in causing HD - lack of exercise being a big one, family history, high glycemic carb intake, CRP, Homocystene, smoking to name a few. Moreover, a high intake of saturated fat is will only raise cholesterol in the presence of too many calories. This is the one of the Atkins deceptions - people on Atkins eat less calories, therefore the cholesterol levels don't change and actually improve in some cases.
To summarize - vegetarian/vegan diets (when practiced without high intakes of refined carbs/sugar/trans fats) can be very effective when combined with other lifestyle interventions. No more effective, however - than a diet with moderate amounts of meat if the veggie intake is the same.
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