By Gabe Sanders Ph.D., NSCA-CSCS
In the world of health and fitness, the debate rages on which diet is better, plant-based or animal-based diets. As you can guess, a plant-based diet is one that consists of mostly plants such as fruits, vegetables, grains, pasta, rice, and beans. Plant-based diets are traditionally thought to be healthy because the food intake consists of green, earthy plants that are low in fat, especially saturated fat. On the contrary, an animal-based diet is rich in protein and fat and by default, lower in carbohydrates.
Animal diets, you guessed it, are composed of mostly meats, eggs, poultry and fish, and animal muscle tissue and proteins. Since red meats have more saturated fat, many people believe animal-based diets are bad for you. However, there is much more to each diet.
Strengths and Weaknesses
Indeed, each diet poses its own strengths and weaknesses. Plant-based diets are generally higher in complex carbohydrates, low in fat, and low incomplete proteins. Veganism is a diet that is 100% plant-based. Sounds healthy, right? Yes, it is, but vegans must consume adequate amounts of complete protein which are most commonly found in animal proteins, not plant proteins. It is possible to consume all complete proteins when eating a vegan diet, but it takes careful planning and often times protein supplementation.
Meanwhile, animal-based diets are usually lower in carbohydrates, higher in fats and they do contain complete proteins which your body needs to grow, stay healthy, and maintain lean muscle mass. Protein is an essential nutrient and diets higher in protein have many advantages such as increase lean muscle tissue, a boost in metabolism, and many more positive effects all the way down to the cellular level.
What does the research say?
Interestingly, many researchers theorize that low-carb animal diets help reduce caloric intake because insulin secretion is lower, thus appetite will be lower.
Recent research set out to test this hypothesis. To test the hypothesis the researchers exposed participants to two weeks of each type of diet (Plant and animal). Throughout the two weeks, caloric intake was monitored and recorded.
Upon conclusion of the study, the researchers determined that participants in the study consumed fewer daily calories while they were on a low-fat, higher carbohydrate plant-based diet, relative to a low carbohydrate animal-based diet.
These findings were contrary to their hypothesis but intriguing, nonetheless. Much more research is needed to fully disseminate these findings to support a different hypothesis.
But today, one diet may not be better than another diet. People should experiment with different diets to identify what type of diet for them as an individual!
Article’s Source
Hall, Kevin D., et al. “Effect of a plant-based, low-fat diet versus an animal-based, ketogenic diet on ad libitum energy intake.” Nature Medicine (2021): 1-10.
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