The Health Benefits of a Vegan Diet: Insights from Identical Twin Studies
A randomized controlled trial involving identical twins found that a healthy vegan diet resulted in significant improvements in LDL cholesterol, fasting insulin levels, and weight loss compared to a healthy omnivore diet. After 8 weeks, the vegan diet group showed a mean decrease of 13.9 mg/dL in LDL-C, a mean decrease of 2.9 μIU/mL in fasting insulin, and a 1.9 kg decrease in body weight. The study suggests that plant-based diets may be recommended by clinicians to reduce cardiometabolic risk factors and align with environmental benefits. However, the study's limitations include a small sample size and a short duration of intervention.