Thursday, September 4, 2008

35th World Vegetarian Congress 'Food for all our futures'

My talk this afternoon is going to be on diabetes and the vegan diet. Unfortunately there have been few studies that have looked at the vegan diet and diabetes although a few have suggested that a vegan diet can relieve symptoms and perhaps prevent diabetes. It has been suggested that approximately 80-95% of cases of type 2 diabetes could be prevented and in Finland last year, it was demonstrated that with lifestyle interventions, increased activity, low fat diet and weight loss, the risk of diabetes was reduced by 58%. (Tuomilehto et al 2001)

This afternoon I wish to highlight the benefits of the vegan diet and how it may prevent against diabetes. I believe that often as vegans we have to prove that we can be healthy and getting enough of this, that and the other but we forget to look at the other side of the coin, how protective the vegan diet can be. However, I also wish to raise the fact that vegans are not immune from western diseases and still need to examine their lifestyle. Over recent years the diet of vegans and vegetarians has changed considerably with many high fat, high salt, high sugar convenience foods being available and there are an increasing number of vegans and vegetarians eating poor diets, taking less activity and putting on weight. However, there is no doubt that a vegan diet can be protective and perhaps prevent many western diseases and one of these may be diabetes! See more.

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