A new Netflix documentary is exploring the benefits of a plant-based diet just in time for New Year’s resolutions.
The series, called “You Are What You Eat: A Twin Experiment,” follows four sets of identical twins who participated in a recent Stanford University study, which compared the health effects of a healthy vegan diet versus a healthy omnivore diet.
To follow a vegan diet, you must avoid all foods that come from animals, such as meat, fish, dairy, eggs and honey. On the other hand, an omnivore diet allows foods from both plant and animal sources.
Using twins is an unusual — but high-quality — framework for a study because outside factors often influence results of nutrition studies, Dr. Christopher Gardner, a research professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and the senior author of the study, tells TODAY.com. Because each set of twins in Gardner’s study had the same genes, upbringing, and similar attitudes and behaviors with food and exercise, the research provided more reliable data than other randomized clinical trials, he explains.
The results of the study and the Netflix documentary reveal that there are benefits to eating healthy, including meat, but there are possibly more from eating only plant-based foods. In fact, the eight twins featured in the Netflix documentary all said they were making long-term changes to their diet as a result of their participation.
Here’s what the Stanford study reveals about the health benefits of going vegan.
Vegan versus omnivore diet: study results
The new research, published Nov. 30 in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA), tracked 22 pairs of identical twins for eight weeks as one twin from each pair ate a vegan diet while the other one ate an omnivore diet. Both groups’ diets were designed to be healthy, with lots of vegetables, fruits, and whole grains, and limited added sugars, refined grains and highly processed foods.
“Each pair of twins was randomly…
Read the full article here
