Veganism in a Modern World: Why Vegan?

Veganism is a philosophy and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food or clothing and includes all other forms of diet of non-animal origin. Vegan diet is based on cereals, legumes, fruits and vegetables. Vegans do not eat meat, fish, seafood, eggs, milk, dairy products, carry things made of fur, wool, bones, leather, coral, pearls or any other materials of animal origin. In vegan diets, various components should be kept at normal levels so that general well-being and health could be sustained. More and more people are shifting towards plant-based diets for reasons relating to health, as well as to ethical considerations about climate change and animal welfare. In some countries changes in dietary patterns are only just emerging, while in others this trend is increasing rapidly. Nowadays, many humans enjoy eating meat but may have concerns about harming animals considered sentient with a degree of intelligence (Bastian et al 2012). As a result, the number of vegans and vegetarians has increased markedly in recent decades (Iguacel et al 2019).

Plant based diets

Plant-based diets constitute a diverse range of dietary patterns that emphasize foods derived from plant sources coupled with lower consumption or exclusion of animal products. Vegetarian diets form a subset of plant-based diets, which may exclude the consumption of some or all forms of animal foods. Common vegetarian diets

• Vegan diets omit all animal products, including meat, dairy, fish, eggs and (usually) honey.
• Lacto-vegetarian diets exclude meat, fish, poultry and eggs, but include dairy products such as milk, cheese, yoghurt and butter.
• Lacto-ovo vegetarian diets include eggs and dairy, but not meat or fish.
• Ovo-vegetarian diets exclude meat, poultry, seafood and dairy products, but allow eggs.
• Pesco-vegetarian (or pescatarian) diets include fish, dairy and eggs, but not meat.
• Semi-vegetarian (or flexitarian) diets are primarily vegetarian but include meat, dairy, eggs, poultry and fish on occasion, or in small quantities

Benefits of plant based diets

Plant-based diets have the potential not only to improve human health but also to reduce the environmental impacts associated with high consumption of animal-sourced foods such as meat and dairy products (Willet et al., 2019). The production of plant foods, such as fruits and vegetables, grains, legumes, nuts and seeds, produces lower greenhouse gas emissions than that of animal foods. Foods associated with the greatest negative environmental impacts – unprocessed and processed red meat – are consistently associated with the largest increases in disease risk. Shifting towards plant-based diets can also help prevent biodiversity loss (Tilman et al., 2017).

This shift in dietary patterns could significantly reduce global land use for agriculture, by reducing the amount of land required for grazing and growing crops. It is encouraging that reducing the consumption of unprocessed and processed red meat has dual benefits for both human and planetary health. Excessive meat consumption places a burden on health-care systems; for example, it has been estimated that in 2020 there were 2.4 million deaths worldwide, and approximately €240 million in health-care costs, attributable to excessive red and processed meat consumption (GBD 2017 Diet collaborators).

Conclusion

Veganism consists of various components in itself from a dietary pattern to a viewpoint, which has both personal and shared goals such as animal rights, health, and environment. A well-planned vegan diet can meet all the body's needs. While many studies have considered the benefits and disadvantages of vegan and vegetarian diets in relation to health, findings are often contradictory. Given the pervasiveness of these dietary choices within the global population, there is now the perfect opportunity to conduct large, longitudinal studies around this question. While the jury is still out, vegan and vegetarian diets likely offer beneficial effects like improved digestion, reduced risk of some cancers, and improved circulation, with a diminished incidence of infarctions and cerebrovascular accidents.

References

1. Bastian B, Loughnan S, Haslam N, Radke HRM (2012) Don't mind meat? the denial of mind to animals used for human consumption. Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 38:247–256. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1177/0146167211424291.
2. GBD 2017 Diet Collaborators. Health effects of dietary risks in 195 countries, 1990–2017: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2017. Lancet. 2019;393(10184):1958–72. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(19)30041-8
3. Iguacel I, Miguel-Berges ML, Gómez-Bruton A, Moreno LA, Julián C (2019) Veganism, vegetarianism, bone mineral density, and fracture risk: a systematic review and meta-analysis. Nutrition Reviews 77:1–18. Doi: https://doi.org/10.1093/nutrit/nuy045.
4. Tilman D, Clark M, Williams DR, Kimmel K, Polasky S, Packer C. Future threats to biodiversity and pathways to their prevention. Nature. 2017;546(7656):73–81. doi:10.1038/nature22900.
5. Willett W, Rockström J, Loken B, Springmann M, Lang T, Vermeulen S et al. Food in the Anthropocene: the EAT–Lancet Commission on healthy diets from sustainable food systems. Lancet. 2019;393(10170):447–92. doi:10.1016/S0140-6736(18)31788-4.