Vegan Side Effects: Healthy Brain & Healthy Heart

Vegans are typically health-conscious individuals who, after cutting meat and dairy products from their diet, also choose to eliminate highly processed foods from their diets, even if those food products are vegan (like Spicy Sweet Doritos, for example).  The benefits of following a healthy vegan diet (it’s okay to cheat on your diet with vegan guilty pleasures every now and then) are many, but the most impactful benefits are the benefits to your heart and your brain.

Heart Benefits

• At least 25% reduced risk of mortality from ischemic heart disease (Source)
• TMAO, which increases the risk of heart disease, is lower in vegans/vegetarians than in meat eaters (Source)
• Reduced risk of Left Ventricular Diastolic Dysfunction and Stage B Heart Failure Burden (Source)
• Reversal of existing coronary artery disease (Source)

Brain Benefits

• Reduced risk of Parkinson’s Disease (Source)
• Reduced risk of Alzheimer’s Disease (Source)
• Reduced risk of Multiple Sclerosis (Source)
• Reduced risk of senile dementia (Source)
• Reduced risk of having a stroke (Source)
• Regression of diabetic neuropathy (Source)

Check out this fun article on brain superfoods (11/12 vegan options).

Some other benefits: reduced risk of cancer, obesity, hypertension, gallstones, cholesterol, diabetes, and more. Vegans also have lower mortality rates.

Please feel free to google around for more sources. It’s fun to do your research, challenge your beliefs (and challenge assumptions in others’ beliefs), and in the end learn something new! If you’ve ever tried the vegan/vegetarian diet, leave me a comment! How did you feel afterward? Did it help you? Did it not? I’d like to know! Thanks for reading 🙂