Fad to Global Health Solution: The Plant Based Diet

As a recent convert to veganism, I’ve become tuned into news and opinions surrounding the topic. This is a very controversial area, particularly in the deep-set farming community that I grew up in. With the rise of social media comes a wave of misinformation on both sides and this only inflames the arguments. I chose to become a vegan because of my health – I did a lot of reading to educate myself on my personal nutritional needs and have adapted my diet to satisfy both this and my wallet. But how hard would it be for the majority of the population to give up animal products and adopt a plant-based diet?

My vegan journey started when both my parents were diagnosed with cardiomyopathies at the age of 55. On top of this, all the women in my family apart from myself have had their gall bladders removed, most have high blood pressure and hypercholesterolaemia, and many have hypersensitivity conditions. For a while now, my mother has been on a concoction of six different antihypertensives and there isn’t any sign of improvement. With beta-blockers being the next step and all the side effects that come with them, she is trying her best to reduce her stress, increase her exercise and reduce her salt intake – just what the doctor’s ordered. Naturally, I’ve been looking for anything that we could implement which could help these conditions and perhaps prevent myself and future generations from going down the same path. A common theme to many articles and papers that I’ve read was to reduce saturated fats, salt and processed foods as well as increasing exercise (something that is much easier to say than do!). With my parent’s permission, I took a close look at their diet and nutritional intake and to be honest, it wasn’t as bad as I was expecting. The only things that were in excess were protein and fat, with no deficiencies in minerals or vitamins. But on closer inspection, meat and animal products were centre-stage of the vast majority of meals, and I wondered if this could be something to change.

My reading suggested that even small reductions in meats and dairy products could result in large reductions in cholesterol, blood pressure and weight and I was convinced this would be worth trying. However, getting the family on board, with dairy farming a major part of my family tree, wasn’t going to be an easy discussion. Quietly, my mother was open to anything to try to improve her health, but was anxious because she didn’t know where to start. This is were my veganism began, a kind of DIY project to show my family what was possible.

Much of the arguments surrounding ditching animal products is around nutrition – protein, B12 and more recently choline have favoured in the news and on social media and are the main topics my friends and family bring up when discussing veganism. I’m not going to pretend it’s easy. Tracking nutritional intake of any diet is time consuming, difficult and down-right confusing with different websites, books, and even nutritionists quoting various numbers and percentages to be concerned about. Every other day it seems there’s an article popping up about diet, muddying the waters with each addition. And if you happen to have health conditions that require additional challenges, this can feel near impossible to navigate. In my reading I was recommended time and time again to seek advice from my GP or nutritionist. A 10-minute appointment, a blood test and some extra reading from this helped me to create my plan – make sure I eat more vegetables than fruit, in at least 5 colours with mostly leafy greens, and also drink milks that are fortified with B12, vitamin D and calcium. Beyond this, I needed to revisit the doctors to check my bloods and I had a free reign over which foods featured in my shopping basket. A bit of thinking and some 90-minute Tesco trips (much to my husband’s dismay!) gave me my meal plan for the next few weeks. Technology has been a god-send when it comes to dietary changes. Apps can track calories, proteins and fats and the one I love looks at a vast array of micronutrients as well. All this really helped my vegan conversion and the last trip to the doctors gave me the green light to go it alone.

These changes have had a positive effect on my health - I’ve ditched my inhalers and I’ve not had a flare-up of my eczema in months. Through the changes in my own life, I convinced my parents to only have meat in three main meals a week, and to reduce their dairy intake as much as possible. For a family who keeps chickens in the garden producing a dozen eggs a day, this was a huge step and I’m pleased to say my mother’s blood pressure has reduced to 145/93 mmHg on her last check. She’s also noticed changes to her psoriasis - it now covers less than a quarter of her body where at times, it’s been nearing 75%.

This has been such a positive changed for my family, long may it continue, but now I’ve began to wonder what the world’s health would look like if more people adopted a plant-based diet. Looking at the UK, where the majority of adults are overweight or obese and all the known health complications that come with this, it’s easy to think the solution is to simply eat more fruit and veg, reduce fat intake and do more exercise. Veganism, if done with nutrition as the focus, could be an answer. But I had to do lots of research, get my GP onboard and micro-manage my diet to make sure I’m not harming myself. Not everyone can access this level of information and support, and I’m in the lucky situation to get input from many sources. It’s incredibly time consuming and because veganism has been seen as the flavour of the month, many companies and supermarkets charge extra for their meat-free alternatives. I’d love for everyone to have the same level of knowledge and help to decide whether a plant-based existence is the right choice for them, but until this happens, I feel vegans will remain the minority. Fear of the unknown is a big dissuader for many, my mother included, and with social media and peer pressure having the influence they do, I’m not sure I’ll have many more converts from my home town! But encouraging your circle to look at their nutrition honestly and change one or two things for the better is probably the best start for a society as a whole. Veganism may not be the answer for everyone, however the discussion on how our food impacts our health has definitely become much louder since this movement has grown. I hope this will continue and more people feel empowered to change their diets for the better.