What Are The Health Benefits To Having A Vegan Diet?

We traditionally have 4 main food diets that people follow in society: carnivorous, pescatarian, vegetarian and vegan. Many of the diets are relatively similar in terms of having vegetables and dairy products, except carnivores also eat meat and fish whilst pescatarians only eat fish. Overall, these diets are therefore considered relatively balanced in their vitamins and minerals intake and ranging in different proteins, carbohydrates etc.

However, when we look into vegan eaters they are extremely different. This is because it’s a purely plant based diet that uses natural ingredients to make their food. This means it’s a diet that doesn’t contain ingredients such as eggs, fish and meat which tends to provide us with plenty of sources such as protein and carbohydrates.

Popular alternatives that tend to help with this are manufactured products such as Quorn and Tofu to help make up for any losses in food sources that you wouldn’t normally find in the diet.

Tofu

Tofu is extremely popular for vegan eaters due to the qualities that it has compared to normal meats. They’re free from the unsaturated fats and reduce cholesterol levels massively, by around 3-5%. It’s also rich in omega-3 and contains 14% of your recommended daily intake of magnesium. 

Whilst it has many benefits there are also some downsides to Tofu. Most commonly, many people can be allergic to the soy content that it has, which means it isn’t readily available for everyone to eat. There’s also the argument of whether due to its artificial content, it’s healthy for individuals. 

Supplements

It’s also considered that a vegan diet will naturally enable you to eat more vitamins and minerals as you’d be unable to get the protein content that you need from meats. The content for this is actually much higher compared in eating natural meats and fish. So, in order to get the most out of your diet, you may have to consider taking supplements such as EPA fish oil and vegan probiotics to make up for the loss of nutrients.


The issue with having supplements is that it won’t be as effective in your body compared to eating the foods naturally. This is one issue that vegan eaters have, in that they may lack in nutrients and vitamins in their daily lives. 

Athlete comparison

A popular reason why many people have opted for a vegan diet is from athlete influence. Many well-known athletes have opted for vegan diets as it has benefits for optimum performance. Whilst this may be beneficial for athletes, it’s important to consider that they’re likely to have nutritionists and trainers around them that have great knowledge of how it can be beneficial for their performance, but to the everyday individual, you may struggle to gain the benefits that a famous athlete is likely to gain. 

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