If you're here because of the "drama", congratulations, I am too apparently. If you're also here with the position that a vegan diet is unhealthy in humans, I'm begging you for a toilet break's worth of your time. The contents of this post are wholly divorced from ethics or environmental concerns, are not here to "own you with facts and logic", and are focused solely on human health through the quoting of scientific literature. For as many of these as I can, I have provided links to the full text on the NCBI's PubMed Commons in the interest of transparency.

• It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that appropriately planned vegetarian, including vegan, diets are healthful, nutritionally adequate, and may provide health benefits for the prevention and treatment of certain diseases. These diets are appropriate for all stages of the life cycle, including pregnancy, lactation, infancy, childhood, adolescence, older adulthood, and for athletes [...] Low intake of saturated fat and high intakes of vegetables, fruits, whole grains, legumes, soy products, nuts, and seeds (all rich in fiber and phytochemicals) are characteristics of vegetarian and vegan diets that produce lower total and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels and better serum glucose control. These factors contribute to reduction of chronic disease. —Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (2016)

• Based on this systematic review of randomized clinical trials, there is an overall robust support for beneficial effects of a plant-based diet on metabolic measures in health and disease. —Translational Psychiatry (2019)

• In most countries a vegan diet has less energy and saturated fat compared to omnivorous control diets, and is associated with favourable cardiometabolic risk profile including lower body weight, LDL cholesterol, fasting blood glucose, blood pressure and triglycerides. —PLoS One meta-analysis (2018)

• This comprehensive meta-analysis reports a significant protective effect of a vegetarian diet versus the incidence and/or mortality from ischemic heart disease (-25%) and incidence from total cancer (-8%). Vegan diet conferred a significant reduced risk (-15%) of incidence from total cancer. —Critical Reviews in Food Science and Nutrition (2017)

• The present systematic review and meta-analysis showed a 15% and a 21% reduction in the relative risk of CVD and IHD, respectively, for vegetarians compared to nonvegetarians, but no clear association was observed for total stroke or subtypes of stroke. In addition, an 18% reduction in the relative risk of IHD was observed among vegans when compared to nonvegetarians, although this association was imprecise. —European Journal of Nutrition (2023)

• Adequate intake of dietary fiber is associated with digestive health and reduced risk for heart disease, stroke, hypertension, certain gastrointestinal disorders, obesity, type 2 diabetes, and certain cancers. According to consumer research, the public is aware of the benefits of fiber and most people believe they consume enough fiber. However, national consumption surveys indicate that only about 5% of the population meets recommendations, and inadequate intakes have been called a public health concern [...] The IOM defines total fiber as the sum of dietary fiber and functional fiber. Dietary fiber includes nondigestible carbohydrates and lignins that are intrinsic and intact in plants; functional fiber includes isolated, nondigestible carbohydrates that have beneficial physiological effects in humans. Common sources of intrinsic fiber include grain products, vegetables, legumes, and fruit. —American Journal of Lifestyle Medicine (2017)

• Consumption of vegetarian diets was associated with lower mean concentrations of total cholesterol (−29.2 and −12.5 mg/dL, P < 0.001), low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (−22.9 and −12.2 mg/dL, P < 0.001), and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (−3.6 and −3.4 mg/dL, P < 0.001), compared with consumption of omnivorous diets in observational studies and clinical trials, respectively. —Nutrition Reviews (2017)

• [R]ecommendations to increase fruit and vegetable consumption, while decreasing saturated fat and dairy intake, are supported [for asthma] by the current literature. Mediterranean and vegan diets emphasizing the consumption of fruits, vegetables, grains, and legumes, while reducing or eliminating animal products, might reduce the risk of asthma development and exacerbation. Fruit and vegetable intake has been associated with reduced asthma risk and better asthma control, while dairy consumption is associated with increased risk and might exacerbate asthmatic symptoms. —Nutrition Reviews (2020)

• Over the past two decades, a substantial body of consistent evidence has emerged at the cellular and molecular level, elucidating the numerous benefits of a plant-based diet (PBD) for preventing and mitigating conditions such as atherosclerosis, chronic noncommunicable diseases, and metabolic syndrome. —Nutrients comprehensive review (2023)

• Consumption of vegetarian diets, particularly vegan diets, is associated with lower levels of plasma lipids, which could offer individuals and healthcare professionals an effective option for reducing the risk of heart disease or other chronic conditions. —Nutrition Reviews systematic review and meta-analysis (2017)

• After adjusting for basic demographic characteristics, medical specialty, and health behaviours (smoking, physical activity) in model 2, participants who followed plant-based diets had 73% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 (OR 0.27, 95% CI 0.10 to 0.81) compared with participants who did not follow plant-based diets. Similarly, participants who followed either plant-based diets or pescatarian diets had 59% lower odds of moderate-to-severe COVID-19 (OR 0.41, 95% CI 0.17 to 0.99) compared with those who did not follow these diets. —British Medical Journal (2021)

• Current research suggests that switching to a plant-based diet may help increase the diversity of health-promoting bacteria in the gut. However, more research is needed to describe the connections between nutrition, the microbiome, and health outcomes because of their complexity and individual heterogeneity. —Nutrients systematic review (2023)

• [T]his systematic review shows that plant-based diets and their components might have the potential to improve cancer prognosis, especially for breast, colorectal and prostate cancer survivors. —Current Nutrition Reports (2022)

• Moderate evidence suggests that adhering to vegan diets for at least 12 weeks may be effective in individuals with overweight or type 2 diabetes to induce a meaningful decrease in body weight and improve glycemia. —Obesity Reviews systematic review and meta-analysis (2022)

• The data discussed in this systematic review allow us to conclude that plant-based diets are associated with lower BP and overall better health outcomes (namely, on the cardiovascular system) when compared with animal-based diets. —Current Hypertension Reports (2023)

• There are multiple benefits of a vegan or vegetarian diet [six listed, too long to quote here] in the management of CKD [...] —Journal of Renal Nutrition (2019)

• The present systematic review provides evidence that vegan and vegetarian diets are associated with lower CRP levels, a major marker of inflammation and a mediator of inflammatory processes. —Scientific Reports (2020)

• Evidence strongly suggests that plant-based dietary patterns that are abundant in fruits, vegetables, nuts, seeds, legumes, and whole grains with less emphasis on animal foods and processed foods are a useful and a practical approach to preventing chronic diseases. Such dietary patterns, from plant-exclusive diets to plant-centered diets, are associated with improved long-term health outcomes and a lower risk of all-cause mortality. Given that neurodegenerative disorders share many pathophysiological mechanisms with CVD, including oxidative stress, inflammation, and vascular damage, it is reasonable to deduce that plant-based diets can ameliorate cognitive decline as well. —Advances in Nutrition (2019)

• [T]he current study presents evidence that plant-based diets, among which the vegan diet, have no effect on physical performance, including on strength/power performance. It is noteworthy that aerobic performance may be even benefitted by these diets. —British Journal of Nutrition systematic review and meta-analysis (2024)

• [H]igher adherence to plant-based dietary patterns, especially from healthy sources, may be universally beneficial for the primary prevention of T2D, CVD, cancer, and mortality. —Nutrition Journal systematic review and meta-analysis (2023)

• This umbrella review offers valuable insights on the estimated reduction of risk factors for cardiometabolic diseases and cancer, and the CVDs-associated mortality, offered by the adoption of plant-based diets through pleiotropic mechanisms. Through the improvement of glycolipid profile, reduction of body weight/BMI, blood pressure, and systemic inflammation, A/AFPDs significantly reduce the risk of ischemic heart disease, gastrointestinal and prostate cancer, as well as related mortality. —PLoS One (2024)

• In this community‐based cohort of US adults without cardiovascular disease at baseline, we found that higher adherence to an overall plant‐based diet or a provegetarian diet, diets that are higher in plant foods and lower in animal foods, was associated with a lower risk of incident cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular disease mortality, and all‐cause mortality. —Journal of the American Heart Association (2019)

• In this meta-analysis of prospective observational studies, we found that greater adherence to a plant-based dietary patterns was inversely associated with the risk of type 2 diabetes. These findings were broadly consistent across subgroups defined by various population characteristics and robust in sensitivity analyses.—JAMA Internal Medicine (2019)

• Our findings suggest that a shift in diet from a high consumption of animal-based foods, especially red and processed meat, to plant-based foods (e.g., nuts, legumes, and whole grains) is associated with a lower risk of all-cause mortality, CVD, and T2D. Thus, a change in dietary habits towards an increment of plant-based products appears to be important for cardiometabolic health. —BMC Medicine systematic review and meta-analysis (2023)

• Not only is there a broad expansion of the research database supporting the myriad benefits of plant-based diets, but also health care practitioners are seeing awe-inspiring results with their patients across multiple unique subspecialties. Plant-based diets have been associated with lowering overall and ischemic heart disease mortality; supporting sustainable weight management; reducing medication needs; lowering the risk for most chronic diseases; decreasing the incidence and severity of high-risk conditions, including obesity, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and hyperglycemia; and even possibly reversing advanced coronary artery disease and type 2 diabetes. —The Permanente Journal (2016)

• It is the position of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics that, in adults, appropriately planned vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns can be nutritionally adequate and can offer long-term health benefits such as improving several health outcomes associated with cardiometabolic diseases. […] As leaders in evidence-based nutrition care, RDNs and NDTRs should aim to support the development and facilitation of vegetarian and vegan dietary patterns and access to nutrient-dense plant-based meals. Promoting a nutrient-balanced vegetarian dietary pattern on both individual and community scales may be an effective tool for preventing and managing many diet-related conditions. —Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics (2025)

https://mstdn.social/@grickle/116924830102921661

"I kill 80 pigs a day. I come home and my daughter asks me to pet our little dog. My name is Massimo, I work on a factory farm. I'm the hand. I'm the executioner. The mechanism that turns terror into silence. The sun never shines here. The days are marked by smells: chlorine, shit, blood. Every day. Every day. They arrive. We call them "the material." Piled up, one on top of the other. Exhausted. Terrified. It's their last day: they understand it perfectly. Electric shocks. A few beatings. Then a blow to the head. Blade to the throat. Some remain conscious, but it'll all be over in five minutes anyway. It's a waltz. One, two, three: he looks around. I shock him. One, two, three: he understands what's about to happen. A beating. One, two, three: he wants Run away. I block his head. One, two, three: screams. A blow to the head and a blade. Every year in Italy, we "process" 13 million of them like this. They call it the production chain. The assembly line of death. Yesterday, however, a "material" behaved differently. It was still. Silent. It stared me in the eyes. Then, with a wet muzzle, it licked my hand. A plea? A desperate plea for mercy? Yes, it's the final message of someone who knows it's over. Then the boss shouted: "There are deadlines!" A blow and a blade. They say they're as smart as three-year-olds, you know? They understand. They feel. They hope. They recognize their name. Three years old. Like Sophia. It's for her that I do this. When I open the door, she runs to me: "Dad, give Arthur a pat!" Arthur licks me. He looks me straight in the eyes. He trusts me. Arthur looks at me and trusts me... He has the same look, precise, crystalline, innocent: the same look before the attack. So this morning it wasn't mercy? Why was he looking me in the eyes? That bastard didn't want mercy: he wanted to trust. How dare he do that? How dare he trust me, damn it? I can't breathe. A few minutes later I'm at the table. My wife has cooked the sausages. "Eat them, they're getting cold." Sorry. But I can't tonight. I can't."

Massimo worked for 15 years in the slaughterhouse of a factory farm in Lombardy. Today he no longer eats animals. (Adamo Romano)

I certainly value my life, why should other lives not be valued? I would not want harmful treatment to others of other species. Most won't change from their ways to not contribute to such, I am aware. It is still what would be very well for all of us in general to do. We do not have to contribute to the misery and slaughter of many animals being used, we could be much healthier, and not contribute to more land, water and resources being used with greater waste left, as environments are worsened and many species go extinct with the contribution. I really found tasty meals with this way I have, to continue with, and have been doing very well with it for well over a decade.

Hi all. As this is the internet, I’m sure I’m going to get backlash and negative comments about me personally (“you were never REALLY vegan”), but before you do that please know this post is coming from someone struggling with a lot of things beyond just this and is legit looking for help.

I’ve been vegan for 6 years now (for the animals and for the environment). During that time I have never knowingly consumed any kind of animal products be it food or otherwise. I always felt I was doing the right thing for me and strongly felt the need to reduce harm that I inflict as a human consumer. I struggle with self-esteem so I always figured “I’m a piece of shit, why should anything have to suffer to sustain me?” I should note I also live in a very VERY rural area and I’m the only vegan I personally know both locally and anywhere else.

Lately I’ve been struggling with my conviction when it comes to being vegan. I see all the horrible things in this world. How no one seems to care for anything other than themselves these days. Humans can’t even treat each other with basic decency let alone animals. All humans seem to do is destroy the environment so they can google something faster or generate some slop that looks the same as all the rest. So why should I even bother anymore? Buy that leather belt, eat that chicken. Baseline decency is no longer needed it seems, why go further?

I guess what I’m saying is the world is shit and most of the people in it seem to be as well. Why should I care about harm reduction anymore? If the status quo is to treat everything and everyone like shit, then what’s the point anymore?

When I play it forward in my mind, the thought of actually consuming animal products makes me physically ill, but I feel like I’m thinking about it more and more and the time it takes for me to get to that nausea takes longer and longer. And that is what truly worries me.

I hate that I’m starting to not care about others anymore, and frankly could use a caring ear and words.

EDIT: Thank you for the advice and encouragement all. I know this is something I’m going to struggle with for some time, but I’m bookmarking this to come back to your reminders about why I do this. Whether that reason is compassion or spite. Both work depending on the day. I am grateful for you all.

I've been building a vegan places directory (shared in this post) and enough people asked for an app that it's finally live on iOS and Android. It's a small independent project run by 2 people. If you've used HappyCow it lives in that world, but the focus is a bit different:

• Vegan-oriented, not vegetarian. A place with no vegan options doesn't get listed, and 100% vegan spots are flagged separately from mostly-vegan, vegan-friendly, and "only 1-2 vegan options" - so you know before you go.
• Free, no ads, nobody can pay to rank higher. Businesses can claim and manage their own page for free.
• Open and community-correctable: much of the data is OpenStreetMap + other open sources, so if a spot's missing you can add it, and if something's mislabelled or mis-categorised you can help me fix it from its page in one tap.
• It's more than a map - there are free vegan tools in there too (barcode scanner, menu/ingredients scanner, and more).

Honest about the state: it's still growing, some cities are thin, and since a lot of the data comes from OSM/open sources the quality isn't perfect yet.

Looking forward to your feedback and criticism - be brutal.

Get the PlantsPack App (iOS & Android)

“We are pleased that the Supreme Court declined to review one more tedious pork industry challenge to a voter-approved state farm animal welfare law,” said Rebecca Cary, managing attorney at Humane World for Animals. “The law has now been upheld at every level of the federal judiciary, confirming that Question 3 is constitutional and not preempted by federal law.”

I am vegan now for about thirteen years, and there is not any likelihood of stopping that the rest of my life. I have been living in ways so healthy, and doing well with that still. I am older now. Others die off and then they won't hear me say I told you so.

It's not a perfect replacement, but searching OpenStreetMap via https://overpass-turbo.eu/ with a query like

[out:json][timeout:25];
(
  nwr["diet:vegan"~"yes|only"]({{bbox}});
  nwr["cuisine"~"vegan"]({{bbox}});
);
out geom;

can be useful and is often more up-to-date with respect to restaurants that actually still exist.

An example: https://overpass-turbo.eu/s/2shI

Fourteen years ago, there were my own money troubles, so that I was needing to get food where there was help for that, this made a difficulty in going vegan when I might have otherwise. Going vegan itself right after that difficulty was not hard, I can give tips for that.

Bag of Milton's Protein Crackers at Costco Langford BC. Why bother advertising that it is "plant-based" when it contains milk? I mean, I've seen products stating that they "may contain milk" but this one straight up says it does black on white!

I'm being gaslit by a bag of crackers...

I have come to like the meals I learned to make, so much, I was having them all the time, though I come to vary them, even more, increasing the variety I get for every week, as I learned the healthier ways, and it is with whole foods. I have not gone out, for eating at restaurants, for a good while now. I don't call these meals anything, I make them myself not going by a recipe, but with the variation of cut up vegetables distinct each time, including leafy greens and other color besides green, and lentils, nuts, and seeds, that go in the meals, there is always the sauce I have from hummus and medium salsa I am getting, and healthy tasty herbs and spices, often I put in guacamole and maybe shredded jackfruit too. I alternate with cut up potato, quinoa, or whole grain pasta for these meals. A couple of times in a week I will put in a bit of dried seaweed. I will have such a meal each day! These are big meals. At lot goes into them now, but I have become quick at making these. I don't think about anything I have given up, at all. It's no sacrifice this way of being vegan, the healthy way. Having a sandwich I make and a bean burrito I make in the day as well will be enough for me besides a bit of protein cookie with the tea or coffee I can have.

I went shopping in a new store today. At first I was excited to find something with 100% juice that wasn’t absurdly expensive. But then I looked at the ingredients and saw cochineal extract, AKA carmine, AKA crushes beetles used to make things red.

I just don’t understand. You’ve got this juice, you could totally add beet juice for coloring and achieve a beautiful color. But no, gotta throw insects into it instead. As far as hidden non-vegan ingredients go, stuff from insects tends to fly under the radar. Yet I bet if more people were aware of what they were buying, even non-vegans would take issue with it.

Since learning what I really want in meals (it has been an ongoing process as I add more things I find that I will want with the meals) it becomes routine enough, even with the things I alternate between, to prepare quickly enough. So this isn't difficult. The prepared processed stuff that a lot of others have, which was in my past, could possibly be made yet quicker, but those are not desirable to me in this part of my life while I have really tasty and very healthy meals, using the Whole Foods Plant Based (WFPB) way, now with more variety.