Mediterranean diets - Vegan Mediterranean Diets

López-Moreno, M et al. The OMNIVEG STUDY: Health outcomes of shifting from a traditional to a vegan Mediterranean diet in healthy men. A controlled crossover trial. Nutrition, Metabolism and Cardiovascular Diseases, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.numecd.2024.08.008.

Over the past few decades increasing interest in Mediterranean diets for disease prevention has been investigated. In comparison to Western animal product-centric diets, there are clear health benefits and disease risk reductions in following Mediterranean diets, particularly as the Mediterranean diet is rich in plant foods. However, Mediterranean diets also contain eggs, dairy milk, cheese, fish, and nominal amounts of meat, all containing saturated fat, cholesterol and no fibre. Numerous replacement studies have shown the positive benefits when animal products or animal protein are replaced with plant food or plant protein, particularly for type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease risks. 

Given the established health risks with animal product consumption from epidemiological and interventional studies, it is unknown if the benefits and protective effects of the Mediterranean diet could be further enhanced. 

Vegan Mediterranean Diet

To investigate this, researchers in Spain sought to compare a traditional Mediterranean diet with a Vegan Mediterranean diet, looking at cardiometabolic health outcomes as well as cardiorespiratory fitness in healthy young, physically active males. The OMNIVEG study was conducted as a crossover trial where participants followed the traditional Mediterranean diet for 3 weeks, followed by a 1-week washout period and then adhered to a Vegan Mediterranean diet for the last 4 weeks. The diets were comparable in fat protein and calories. While there were few differences between the diets for cardiorespiratory fitness, there were significant improvements from the Vegan Mediterranean diet compared to the traditional Mediterranean diet.  

Yes - Yes - Yes

Results included significant reductions in total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, systolic blood pressure, diastolic blood pressure, and mean arterial pressure, as well as reductions in neutrophils and the neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, both biomarkers of immune and inflammatory function.

Outstanding Results

Our advisory board member Dr. Tim Radak is thrilled to share this link to access the full pdf. The results are some of the first to demonstrate enhanced cardiometabolic and immune function from following a Vegan Mediterranean diet compared to a Mediterranean diet, suggesting the protective effects of a Mediterranean diet can be further enhanced when eliminating animal products. These results are particularly noteworthy given these positive effects occurred in just a 4 week period. 

In good health