As a new technology, medicine, and preventative vaccinations improve people’s lives, more individuals develop health problems due to changing our nutritional culture. According to American Heart Association, leading killer diseases, including diabetes, cancer, and heart disease, are rising because of changes in people’s food and activity habits. Increased health and obesity concerns, cardiovascular events such as heart attacks and strokes, some forms of diabetes, and cancer have resulted from this shift in culture or dietary transition. Vegetarianism and veganism are rising in India’s population and diabetes, harming Asian Indians and Asian Indian immigrants in the US. Several Asian Indians immigrate to the United States, bringing with them their distinct cultural beliefs and culinary traditions. While some features of immigration have helped immigrants obtain a better education and specialized employment, the Indian American community’s adoption of Western nutrition has contributed to diabetes.
What are some of the potential health benefits of eating a vegan or vegetarian diet?
One of the most convincing arguments for most mainstream Americans to change their omnivorous diets is the current health issue that millions of Americans are battling. Many dietary patterns, such as semi-vegetarian, pescatarian, vegan, and vegetarian, have been examined by the medical community. Vegetarian diets are popular for a variety of reasons; according to the National Health Interview Survey in the United States (2012), about 2% of the population reported following a vegetarian dietary pattern for health reasons in the previous 12 months, with 4% reporting a lifetime history of doing so (Palacios & Maki, 2019). Intake of higher fiber from fruits, legumes, vegetables, and grains is a common feature of plant-based diets, which may promote beneficial metabolic activity such as downregulated protein fermentation and upregulated carbohydrate fermentation, improved gut hormonal-driven appetite regulation. It may help prevent chronic diseases like T2DM and obesity by improving lipid control and slowing digestion. The lowest BMI, fat consumption and cholesterol, total calorie intake that is insufficient, and great polyunsaturated fat and fiber intake were observed in a sample of 1475 individuals. A lesser quantity of protein was consumed than the other groups, with more carbs in this group’s diet. (See Table below).
Reduced risk of other cardiovascular and heart diseases are associated with plant-based food. Increased animal protein consumption may result in stroke, cardiovascular illness, myocardial infarction as a side effect (Fehér et al., 2020). The Seventh Day Adventist faith has a large sample size of men and women who participated in a study that found eating a high-protein plant-based diet was protective against cardiovascular diseases, with an HR of 0.60% (98.75 percent confidence interval, 0.42-0.86), high protein meat-based diets, on the other hand, were linked to a 1.61-fold increase in risk (98.75 percent confidence interval, 1.12-2.32, p 0.001). Foods that contain fatty acids like cheese, yoghurt, and butter, when eaten by vegetarians, may have an inferior risk of cardiovascular disease. For instance, the initial Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) experiment found that adding low-fat dairy products to a low-saturated-fat diet with enough fruits and vegetables reduced blood pressure even more (Palacios & Maki, 2019). According to research, diets rich in short-chain fatty acids reduces the risk of ischemic heart disease. On the other hand, this benefit is negated by excessive dairy consumption.
What are the possibilities of health challenges associated with a vegan and vegetarian diet?
Although vegetarians and vegans consume a lot of fat, they may be deficient in omega-3.
Fatty acids, resulting in synaptic depressions and neurological impairments in the brain. Reduced levels of cholesterol, platelet decrease aggregation, cardiovascular decrease events, fatty acids of omega-3 inclusion, and decreased inflammation can improve everything from heart health to retinopathy (Lee & Park, 2017). Vegans and vegetarians must closely check their micronutrient intake due to plants that contain fatty acids of Omega-3 with longer chains than 18, such as docosahexaenoic acid. (DHA, 22:6 Omega-3) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA, 20:5 Omega-3).
Conclusion
Everyone should make an effort to live a healthier lifestyle. Those diagnosed with
Prediabetes or diabetes may opt to alter the diets they consume to combat the condition. To lower
Blood glucose levels, people might try several different diets and methods. A well-balanced vegan or vegetarian diet is one option for maintaining cardiovascular health and good blood glucose management, as described in this research.
References
Fehér, A., Gazdecki, M., Véha, M., Szakály, M., & Szakály, Z. (2020). A comprehensive review of the benefits of and the barriers to the switch to a plant-based diet.Sustainability, 12(10), 4136.
Lee, Y., & Park, K. (2017). Adherence to a vegetarian diet and diabetes risk: A systematic review and meta-analysis of observational studies. Nutrients, 9(6), 603.
Palacios, O. M., & Maki, K. C. (2019). Vegetarian Diet Patterns and Chronic Disease Risk. Health.