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According to a new study, adopting a vegan diet for two months could be enough to reduce your biological age and lose weight. The lower amount of calories consumed each day could be responsible for this double effect.
Do you know about the vegan diet? Also called the vegan diet, it consists of consuming only plant-based foods, excluding meat, fish, eggs, dairy products or even honey from your diet. Scientists from Stanford University in the United States have studied this diet and its benefits.
A loss of two kilos and a reduction in biological age
For this study, the researchers studied 21 pairs of identical twins with an average age of 40 (77% female with an average BMI of 26), half of whom followed a vegan diet, while the other half followed an omnivorous diet.
After eight weeks, the scientists found that those who followed a vegan diet during the study lost an average of two kilograms more than those who did not. The researchers attributed this to the fact that they consumed 200 fewer calories per day, in the meals provided during the first four weeks.
But that’s not all. The researchers observed a decrease in the estimation of the biological age of certain organs of the vegan volunteers, such as their heart, but also their liver.
To do this, they relied on the levels of DNA methylation in their cells. The latter is a type of chemical modification of DNA used to estimate biological age. Indeed, previous studies have established that an increase in DNA methylation levels is associated with aging.
The vegan diet is not recommended for everyone.
Should we conclude that we must eat vegan to live to a ripe old age? Nothing could be less certain. Scientists believe that in the long term, a vegan diet can lead to nutritional deficiencies and is not necessarily suitable for all ages of life.
According to Tom Sanders, emeritus professor of nutrition and dietetics at King’s College London, interviewed by the Daily Mailresearch suggests that a vegan diet may not be good for the health of older adults.
“Although observational studies indicate that vegan diets may have favorable health effects in middle age, this is not the case in older vegans who appear more likely to suffer from muscle loss, low bone density, and neurological disorders that significantly impact quality of life.” he explains.
Further studies are needed
The authors of this work themselves remain cautious about their results, believing that they do not know to what extent these differences can be attributed to diet. “Further research is needed to study the relationship between diet, weight and aging, in addition to the long-term effects of vegan diets” they conclude.