Is A Vegan Diet Always Health? | Dr. Hana Kahleova
The Exam Room by the Physicians Committee
Physicians Committee
4.9 • 3.3K Ratings
🗓️ 16 January 2024
⏱️ 32 minutes
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Summary
Is a vegan diet always healthy? It appears that even with ultra-processed plant-based foods there are substantial health benefits.
The results of an analysis comparing a vegan diet containing "junk food" indulgences and a standard diet containing meat and dairy are examined by Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, who co-authored the study.
After analyzing the results of nearly 250 study participants, she joins “The Weight Loss Champion” Chuck Carroll on The Exam Room Podcast with the surprising findings.
About The Study
The analysis assessed the association of a plant-based diet index (PDI), healthful plant-based diet index (hPDI), and unhealthful plant-based diet index (uPDI) with weight loss. The PDI measures adherence to a plant-based diet in general, the hPDI includes more fruits, vegetables, grains, and beans, and the uPDI includes more foods such as refined grains and fruit juices.
The findings are from a secondary analysis of a Physicians Committee study in which 244 overweight adults were randomly assigned to a vegan group that followed a low-fat vegan diet or a control group that made no diet changes for 16 weeks. Calorie intake was not limited for either group, and neither group was given diet quality instructions.
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Vegan Diet Quality Study
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Where: Washington, DC - The National Press Club
Date: March 26, 2024
Time: 7:00pm
Who: Dr. Neal Barnard, Chuck Carroll, Dustin Harder, Stefanie Ignoffo
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Today on the exam room. So when we're talking about a vegan diet, does diet quality matter? |
| 0:09.2 | You know, there are some people who say it has to be a whole food plant-based diet and it has to be |
| 0:15.7 | SOS free and you know another group of people are like oh come on you don't need to be |
| 0:22.1 | that strict if you were going vegan, there's still a room or a little bit of some processed foods that may not be nutritionally as dense, but that kind of increased the enjoyment of the diet, right? |
| 0:38.8 | Sometimes when people just like push people too much, like it's just black or white, |
| 0:46.0 | people who are not vegan respond in a negative way. And they're like if vegan unhealthy foods are in the same boat as unhealthy |
| 0:58.0 | non-vegan foods why even bother with a vegan diet like let me just stay where I am and I don't need to change anything and to this |
| 1:07.9 | argument I'd like to say. the Physicians Committee. Hi, I am the Weight Loss Champion, Chuck Carroll. |
| 1:24.5 | Raising health IQs, coast to coast, |
| 1:26.7 | and around the world in great cities like Springfield, Massachusetts, |
| 1:31.3 | Corona, California, and Mumbai, India. |
| 1:35.0 | Wherever you are, we appreciate you helping to make the world a healthier place. |
| 1:40.0 | This is episode 8 of season 7 number 507 overall and this one is going to be a fast moving show and the question is this |
| 1:52.0 | just being vegan or whole food plant-based. |
| 1:56.0 | When it comes to being vegan, does diet quality matter? |
| 2:01.0 | You know, whole food plant-based is the gold standard for healthy eating in plant-based circles, but a lot of people say that's just too hard. I could never do that. |
| 2:12.0 | And in the other corner, this other group of people... I could never do that. |
| 2:12.8 | And in the other corner, this other group of people say, |
| 2:15.4 | well, look, if you just cut out the meat, |
| 2:17.3 | you cut out the dairy, you cut out the fish, |
| 2:19.4 | you are going to be golden and no other rules really apply. |
| 2:24.1 | So if you want an impossible burger with a big old slice of dairy free cheese, |
... |
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