We hate to sound like a broken record. You know what we’re about to say if you have been around our blog for a while. But we get new customers signing up for our newsletter constantly, so it bears repeating: we’re not fans of restrictive diets.
Generally speaking, we think restrictive diets can lead to “falling off the wagon,” eating more unhealthy things and feeling guilty. Our advice is to eat a healthy diet and enjoy any food in moderation as long as you pay attention to your serving size and account for it in your day.
However, we understand that some restrictive diets can be beneficial to health. Some are different from fads, where you aren’t allowed to eat a specific color of food. A restrictive diet can sometimes have health benefits, and we are always willing to learn more.
A study had identical twins follow different diets. One twin would eat an omnivorous diet; the other would eat a vegan diet. Both diets were healthy. Whether the twin was eating a mix of meat, dairy, grains and veggies or strictly avoiding any animal product, they were sticking to healthy foods.
The study used 22 pairs of twins. They had 22 people eating an omnivorous diet that included a wide variety of foods and 22 following a vegan diet that excludes anything from an animal, including dairy and honey. The study lasted eight weeks.
The vegan twins ate fewer calories, lost more weight, had better cholesterol levels and better fasting blood sugar than their siblings at the end of eight weeks. They also slowed down their biological clocks. Looking at biomarkers, researchers saw that the vegans had a “significant decrease” in aging.
For the first four weeks, both groups were provided with meals. In the second half of the study, they cooked their own meals. The omnivores had to eat six to eight ounces of meat, one egg and 1.5 servings of dairy every day. The vegan diet had 200 fewer calories per day during the four weeks of prepared meals. The vegans lost an average of 4.4 pounds more than the omnivores. In the reports about the study, we cannot find a reason for the calorie difference. But we do wonder why, in a tightly controlled study, they didn’t match the calories exactly. It’s hard to tell what health benefits came from the diet and what came from the additional weight loss. The weight loss was likely caused by the calorie difference, not the different types of food.
Following a vegan diet is often seen as being immediately healthier. However, fries, soda and Oreos are vegan. There are plenty of unhealthy options for vegans.
“The terms ‘vegan’ and ‘omnivore’ are very broad, and it is quite possible to make poor food choices that would be consistent with these diet patterns,” said senior study author Dr. Christopher Gardner, a professor of medicine and a nutrition scientist at Stanford Medicine.
Studying biological aging is often difficult because a person’s DNA plays a large role in how they age. By using identical twins, this study eliminated that problem. The researchers stressed that they only studied how diet impacts a person for eight weeks. They don’t know what the long-term health effects would be.
