Vegan diet for weight loss and lower blood sugar
Vegan diets can help people who are overweight or have type 2 diabetes to lose weight and lower their blood sugar levels, research suggests.
Published in Obesity Reviews, this review of 11 studies, involving almost 800 adults, compared the effects of a vegan diet with other diets on what’s termed ‘cardiometabolic risk factors’, such as body weight, BMI, blood sugar levels and cholesterol. They found that compared with other diets, following a vegan diet for three months significantly reduced body weight as well as lowering blood sugar levels and cholesterol.
They found that adhering to a vegan diet over three months reduced body weight by about 4.1 kg (9 lb) on average compared with control diets, and cut blood sugar levels.
“This rigorous assessment of the best available evidence to date indicates with reasonable certainty that adhering to a vegan diet for at least 12 weeks may result in clinically meaningful weight loss and improve blood sugar levels, and therefore can be used in the management of overweight and type 2 diabetes,” said Anne-Ditte Termannsen, of the Steno Diabetes Centre in Copenhagen, who led the research.
Termannsen said, “Vegan diets likely lead to weight loss because they are associated with a reduced calorie intake due to a lower content of fat and higher content of dietary fibre.”
Termannsen AD, Clemmensen KKB, Thomsen JM et al. 2022. Effects of vegan diets on cardiometabolic health: A systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. Obesity Reviews. Epub ahead of print.
About the author
Dr. Justine Butler
Justine joined Viva! in 2005 after graduating from Bristol University with a PhD in molecular biology. After working as a campaigner, then researcher and writer, she is now Viva!’s head of research and her work focuses on animals, the environment and health. Justine’s scientific training helps her research and write both in-depth scientific reports, such as White Lies and the Meat Report, as well as easy-to-read factsheets and myth-busting articles for consumer magazines and updates on the latest research. Justine also recently wrote the Vegan for the Planet guide for Viva!’s Vegan Now campaign.
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