The National Health Service (NHS) highlighted a recent study that suggests a strong link between a whole foods vegan diet and type-2 diabetes prevention in overweight adults. The government’s acknowledgment of this vegan-positive research credits both the researching organization and the health benefits of a vegan diet. In addition, this high-level recognition represents the initial acceptance of veganism in both the public sector and the scientific community.
The study was conducted by the established Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine (PCRM), an American non-profit organization with a mission to change the way the medical field treats chronic illness. The organization boasts a collection of over 12,000 physicians and 175,000 members across the U.S. and the world, all working together to focus on “prevention over pills, [and] empowering patients to take control of their own health.” PCRM believes in the healing and preventative powers of plant-based nutrition, and its most recent findings support this theory.
NHS provided a layman’s summary of the PCRM’s type-2 diabetes prevention study. It reviewed the experimental process and commented on the results. In essence, the research involved a sixteen-week randomized control experiment that placed seventy-five overweight men and women into two groups – one on a low fat, vegan diet (the intervention group), the other without change to their current diet (the control group). The intervention group showed improved function of their beta-cells in addition to a reduction in BMI and reportable visceral fat loss. The control group did not see significant results in either beta-cell function or weight loss.
NHS applauded the research technique of the randomized trial, stating that is “is the best way to assess the effectiveness of an intervention.” It also conceded that a vegan diet tends to incorporate less fat and sugar than the typical Western diet, “so the results are not particularly surprising,” they reported. However, the organization was hesitant to fully support the study’s conclusion, noting that more research is necessary.
Despite the NHS’s reservations regarding this vegan study, it is clear that they are open to discussion. In fact, the entity’s public website, NHS Choices, includes a page dedicated to the vegan diet, which reviews the lifestyle’s health benefits as well as where to get key nutrients from plant sources.
