Vegan Coast To Coast
Veganism
Veganism is a diet and lifestyle that seeks to exclude the use of animals for food, clothing, or any other purpose. Vegans endeavor not to use or consume animal products of any kind. The most common reasons for becoming a vegan are ethical commitment or moral conviction concerning animal rights or welfare, the environment, human health, and spiritual or religious concerns. Of particular concern to many vegans are the practices involved in factory farming and animal testing, and the intensive use of land and other resources for animal farming.
Vegan diets (sometimes called strict or pure vegetarian diets) are a form of vegetarian diets. Properly planned vegan diets are healthful and have been found to satisfy nutritional needs. Poorly planned vegan diets can be low in levels of calcium, iodine, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. Vegans are therefore encouraged to plan their diet and take dietary supplements as appropriate. Various polls have reported vegans to be between 0.2% and 1.3% of the U.S. population, and between 0.25% and 0.4% of the UK population.
Vegans and Animal Products
An animal product is any material derived from animals. Notable animal products include meat, poultry, seafood, eggs, dairy products, honey, fur, leather, wool, and silk. Common animal products also include gelatin, lanolin, rennet, whey, casein, beeswax, isinglass, carmine, and shellac.
Animal products such as ground bone and powdered fish organs may be used in the production of a product although they may not appear as an ingredient in the final product. Many of these ingredients are obscure, may also have non-animal sources, and may not even be identified. Although the organization Vegan Outreach has the opinion that "it can be prohibitively expensive and time-consuming to shun every minor or hidden animal-derived ingredient", the Vegan Society will not certify a product as vegan unless its production does not involve, or have involved, the use of any animal product, by-product or derivative.
Different groups disagree about some of the items to be excluded. Neither the Vegan Society nor the American Vegan Society consider the use of honey or other insect products to be suitable for vegans. On the other hand, both Vegan Action and Vegan Outreach question the ethical basis of such a position and regard the consumption of honey as a matter of "personal choice."
Nutritional Benefits
Doctors Dean Ornish, T. Colin Campbell, John A. McDougall and Caldwell Esselstyn claim that high animal fat and protein diets, such as the standard American diet, are detrimental to health. They also state that a lifestyle change incorporating a low fat vegetarian or vegan diet could not only prevent various degenerative diseases, such as coronary artery disease, but reverse them.
According to the American Dietetic Association and Dietitians of Canada, diets that avoid meat tend to have lower levels of saturated fat, cholesterol, and animal protein, and higher levels of carbohydrates, fiber, magnesium, potassium, folate, and antioxidants, such as vitamins C and E, and phytochemicals. People who avoid meat are reported to have lower body mass index than those following the average Canadian diet; from this follows lower death rates from ischemic heart disease; lower blood cholesterol levels; lower blood pressure; and lower rates of hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and prostate and colon cancer.
A 1999 meta-study of five studies comparing vegetarian and non-vegetarian mortality rates in western countries found the mortality rate due to ischemic heart disease 26% lower among vegans compared to regular meat eaters, but 34% lower among ovolactovegetarians and among those who ate fish but no other meat. The lower rate of protection for vegans compared to lacto-ovo vegetarians is believed to be linked to higher levels of homocysteine, which is caused by insufficient vitamin B12, and it is believed that vegans who get sufficient B12 should show even lower risk of ischemic heart disease than lacto-ovo vegetarians. No significant difference in mortality was found from other causes. The mortality rates over all were 0.82 for fish eaters, 0.84 for some omnivores and vegetarians, and 1.00 for vegans and omnivores. A 2003 review of three studies comparing mortality rates among British vegetarians and non-vegetarians found only a nonsignificant reduction in mortality from ischemic heart disease, but noted that the findings were compatible with the significant reduction found in the 1999 review.
A 2006 study found that in people with type 2 diabetes a low-fat vegan diet reduced weight, total cholesterol, and LDL cholesterol and did so to a greater extent than the diet prescribed by the American Diabetes Association.