{"id":1311,"date":"2024-01-14T17:21:52","date_gmt":"2024-01-14T17:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/?p=1311"},"modified":"2024-01-14T17:25:56","modified_gmt":"2024-01-14T17:25:56","slug":"stanford-study-on-twins-determines-vegan-diet-is-best-for-heart-health-or-is-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/?p=1311","title":{"rendered":"Stanford Study on Twins Determines Vegan Diet is Best for Heart Health, or is It?"},"content":{"rendered":"\t\t
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Stanford Study on Twins Determines Vegan Diet is Best for Heart Health, or is It?<\/h1>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t
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The study was recently published on November 30th 2023. It\u2019s now become a Netflix documentary with a lot of chatter about how good the vegan diet is.\u00a0 But the documentary didn\u2019t really look at all the results of the study, or some of its flaws.\u00a0 The title of this study in question is:<\/span><\/p>

Cardiometabolic Effects of Omnivorous vs Vegan Diets in Identical Twins<\/span><\/h1>

Basically, the study is looking at a vegan diet (no animal products at all: no meat, poultry, pork, eggs, dairy, seafood- only plants) vs an omnivore diet (both animal products and plants) and their effects on your risk factors for heart disease.\u00a0 It states: “In this randomized clinical trial of healthy, adult identical twins, the 8-week change in LDL-C level [\u201cbad cholesterol\u201d]\u2014the primary outcome\u2014was significantly lower for twins receiving the vegan diet compared with twins receiving the omnivorous diet”. It also noted that insulin and weight also went down more in the vegan group (plants only) than the omnivore group (plants and animal).<\/span><\/p>

SOLD!!! Right? Going vegan saw more improvement in LDL, insulin, and weight compared to eating meat.\u00a0 Not so fast. Let\u2019s look a little closer at all the details and results.<\/span><\/p>

Study size:<\/b> 44 people (22 sets of twins) and while I’m impressed they found this many identical twins, and using twins is really smart- as they are genetically identical…it’s not a very big group of people. Additionally most of them were women (75% or 34 of the 44 people).\u00a0 The study also noted they were pretty healthy to start- could that have skewed the results at all?<\/span><\/p>

Duration<\/b>: Only 8 weeks, that\u2019s not very long.\u00a0 There can be a lot of good results in the beginning of a diet, but really, is it sustainable in the long term? A vegan diet is not very easy to follow (there are a lot of products with animal products in them you might not even know about) and you need to do it right, or you\u2019ll have gaps in your nutrition.\u00a0 You can\u2019t just cut foods out, you need to add specific foods to make sure you get all your vitamins, minerals, and protein. Case in point: the study found the vegan group ate less protein overall and consumed less B12- a vitamin that is vital for DNA production and red blood cell formation.<\/span><\/p>

Human Error<\/b>: The first 4 weeks the study provided food to the participants in the form of prepared meals. During the second part the participants were to continue their assignment (vegan or omnivore), but they were now making their own meals. The participants were educated and encouraged to eat in a similar way to match what they were provided for the first 4 weeks, but ultimately it was up to them. The study checked in on participants with 3 unannounced 24 hour recalls (where they ask the participants what they ate in the previous 24 hours). However, 24 hour recalls are notorious for their inaccuracy as it’s up to the person to remember what they ate and how much, which they might not remember, or estimate the wrong portion size (there is a big difference between 2 tablespoons of olive oil and 3).\u00a0 Possibly the omnivore group was a little more relaxed in the second 4 weeks\u2026<\/span><\/p>

Lab results<\/b>:\u00a0 From this chart below, we can see that the omnivore twin results are in black, and the vegan twin results are in orange.\u00a0 Time to break it down.<\/span><\/p>

LDL<\/span><\/i>– Point Vegan as their LDL, better known as \u201cbad cholesterol\u201d, went down.<\/span><\/p>

HDL-<\/span><\/i> Point Omnivore.\u00a0 HDL or \u201cgood cholesterol\u201d went down.\u00a0 We don\u2019t want this going down.<\/span><\/p>

Triglycerides<\/span><\/i>– Point Omnivore.\u00a0 Triglycerides went up in the vegan group; that\u2019s the opposite direction you want them to go.<\/span><\/p>

Glucose-<\/span><\/i> Point Omnivore- though barely.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

Insulin-<\/span><\/i> Point Vegan.\u00a0 There was a good drop from baseline for insulin in the vegan group; this is good.<\/span><\/p>

Vitamin B12<\/span><\/i>– Point Omnivore- you don\u2019t want B12 going down though this is probably expected.\u00a0 B12 is only found in animal products, so you have to try really hard to get it in as a vegan.<\/span><\/p>

Weight<\/span><\/i>– Point Vegan.\u00a0 The vegan group did lose more weight than the omnivore diet, but both groups did lose weight.\u00a0 What would happen if the study went longer?\u00a0 I\u2019ve seen lots of studies where weight loss might be fast in the beginning for one group, but end up being the same for both groups by the end of the study.\u00a0 It should also be noted that while the vegan group did lose more weight overall, they lost more muscle mass than the omnivore group, which is not what you want.<\/span><\/p>

\"Diet<\/p>

The clinically significant results (meaning, they were big enough changes to really mean something) were the LDL, insulin, and weight results, which all were in favor of the vegan group.\u00a0 Although there were some points scored for the Omnivore diet, they weren\u2019t as impressive.<\/span><\/p>

\u00a0<\/p>

So did the vegan diet win?\u00a0 Sort of?\u00a0 They definitely improved some of their labs and weight, but not ALL their labs went in the right direction.\u00a0 Plus, it\u2019s a pretty short time frame to say anything definitively.\u00a0 The study also reported the twins on the vegan diet felt more restricted, which will most likely lead to them falling off the diet faster (aka, it\u2019s not sustainable, and that means their labs and weight might just revert back to their original numbers once off the diet).<\/span><\/p>

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Bottom line:<\/b>\u00a0 This study did find improvements in LDL, weight, and insulin- which are good things!\u00a0 However, it warrants further research.\u00a0 What happens after a year? Are the participants still on the vegan diet?\u00a0 What happened to the labs and weight for both groups after a longer period of time?\u00a0 What are the results like when starting with a population that\u2019s less healthy- maybe already have heart disease?\u00a0 When it comes to reading the results or a study, be a little skeptical and look at ALL the results, and how the study was designed.\u00a0 Another tip- who funded the study- any conflicts of interest?\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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My takeaway?<\/b>\u00a0 At Simple Start Nutrition we ALWAYS encourage fruits and vegetables- terms like \u201cplant based\u201d or \u201cplant forward\u201d mean that type of style.\u00a0 AKA- you focus a lot on plants (fruits, veggies, whole grains, plant based fats) and less on animal products (meat, dairy, butter, etc), but they\u2019re still in there.\u00a0 This can be a more realistic approach- more sustainable.\u00a0 Not quite vegetarian or vegan, but easier to follow and likely more enjoyable if you don\u2019t want to give up dairy (ice cream) or meat (like bacon:).<\/span><\/p>

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As always, we recommend you talk to a dietitian if you want to make any big changes to your diet, and going vegan is a big one. Even making little changes can be easier with a dietitian on your side.\u00a0 So reach out whenever!<\/span><\/p>

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Stay Happy, Stay Healthy<\/span><\/p>

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This blog was written by Chris Henigan MS, RD, LDN, co-founder of Simple Start Nutrition.\u00a0 For more blog posts and nutrition information follow @simplestartnutrition on Instagram and Facebook.\u00a0 Also feel free to contact us, by visiting our website (<\/span>simplestartnutrition.com<\/span><\/a>) to schedule an appointment to discuss your nutrition related needs.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>

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The study was recently published on November 30th 2023. It\u2019s now become a Netflix documentary with a lot of chatter about how good the vegan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1312,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"elementor_header_footer","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/simplestartnutrition.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/01\/twins.png?fit=1640%2C924&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1311"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1317,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1311\/revisions\/1317"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1311"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1311"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/simplestartnutrition.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1311"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}